❄️ January 2024

Hi everyone,

Happy New Year! We hope you enjoyed a restful holiday and have entered January refreshed. In true CATF-fashion our staff has jumped right back in with impactful advocacy, research, new resources, events, and convenings. Read on for updates on newly released resources from the U.S. State Policy team on the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program, a new report from the Transportation Decarbonization team on marine fuels, and a recording from the roundtable event, Pathway to Growth: The Forgotten Voter and the Politics of Decarbonisation in Europe. 

If last month’s newsletter got lost in your inbox, you can find a copy here. And if you have any comments, questions, or feedback, please reach out to Kara Hunt.

Leadership, HR, and Project Management News & Updates

Human Resources

❗Check out the staff directory! You can find your coworkers’ information by last name, team, or vertical.

New Staff

Present Your Work!

Please sign up to present on your work at an all-staff watercooler! These presentations can range from overviews of your team’s work to deep dives into a specific solution, to an explanation of the policy landscape in a specific region, or anything else you think may be interesting to staff. They do not need to be long or formal. It’s all about sharing your expertise and work with the CATF community! The link to sign up can be found in the CATF Team General channel under the “Forms” tab, and please feel free to sign up well in advance of your planned presentation date.

Project Management

CRM/Salesforce for Programs 

• Please see the recent all staff email sent on January 26 for timeline updates and next steps on the all staff adoption of Salesforce. We have also created a CRM/Salesforce for Programs FAQ page with helpful information. 

Accounting

Vacation: All unused 2023 vacation time has been moved to the “Prior Year Vacation Balance” code in T-sheets. Please ensure you are logging your time off and using the correct code. Prior year vacation balances will expire on August 30, 2024. 

Operations

Don’t forget to add your time off to the out of office calendar. 

IT

• Endpoint Management: As we finish up our Microsoft InTune rollout (11 systems remaining), we’ll be moving forward with JAMF installation for our Mac clients starting Feb 2024. We’ll be sending out an email with installation instructions this time, as the software can be loaded by end-users. For anyone wanting additional assistance or information, they can reach out to [email protected]. 
• SharePoint: Check out the IT Knowledgebase to see how we’re progressing with documentation and best practices. We welcome any feedback! (If you’d like assistance setting up a SharePoint site, please let IT know ([email protected]). One example of a useful page here is the email lists page. 
• Attack Simulations and Security Awareness Training: We’re working towards implementation of a system to help users identify phishing attacks and reduce organizational risk. This is slated to start Q2 2024. We will be sending additional information soon. 

All organizational updates →

Events & Meetings

What's Happening at CATF? 

Find out more by viewing the 2024 Events Master Calendar

• Reminder: Please add your speaking engagement, sponsorship, exhibit, webinar, or CATF-hosted event or meeting to the calendar. All staff should have access. 
• To start planning a new event or meeting, please review the Intake Form and FAQ. 

Upcoming Events

⚠️ The events tracker is on Monday.com! View it here.

• February 6-8: SPE 2024 Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference and Exhibition (The Woodlands, Texas) 
• February 7: Electricity Market Design Roundtable (Brussels, Belgium) 
• February 7: CATF 101 (Virtual) 
• February 8: Land Systems Seminar: Roads to Removal Report (Virtual) 
• February 19-29: UN Environment Assembly (Nairobi, Kenya) 
• February 21: Concrete and Asphalt Innovation Act Hill Briefing (Washington, D.C.) 
• February 23: CATF International WG Meeting: Fusion Cost Model Analysis (Boston, Massachusetts) 
• February 29: Science of Siting Webinar - ACP Siting & Permitting Conference (Virtual)

Upcoming CATF Holidays

See here for the full holiday lists for all countries.

• Monday, February 5: Mexico Constitution Day (Mexico) 
• Monday, February 19: Presidents’ Day (U.S.); Carnival (Ecuador) 
• Tuesday, February 20: Carnival (Ecuador) 

Program & Regional Advocacy
Team Updates

Highlights

• The U.S. State Policy team developed a suite of resources to help guide state officials in designing competitive Climate Pollution Reduction Grant applications including a framework for project application development, and fact sheets on how this framework can be applied to the medium- and heavy-duty vehicle sector as well as the industrial sector. 
• A new report from the Transportation Decarbonization team found that vessels retrofitted for ammonia fuel can cost less to operate than fossil fuel ships. Read more in the report: Managing the Transition to Zero-Carbon Marine Fuels.  
• CATF’s Legal Advocacy team produced commentary on two standards from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that would significantly reduce pollution – regulations on emissions from heavy-duty vehicles and carbon pollution standards for all coal and gas power plants.  
• EU Advocacy hosted an off-the-record roundtable in partnership with Project Tempo for the event, Pathway to Growth: The Forgotten Voter and the Politics of Decarbonisation in Europe. You can watch the recording here.    
• A new resource from the Clean Energy Infrastructure Deployment team compiles a select list of resources on community benefits that can help bring clarity and context to the nuanced conversation on community benefits and project agreements within the U.S.
• Last year, the Clean Energy Infrastructure Deployment team, in partnership with the University of Michigan’s Graham Sustainability Institute, hosted a two-part workshop series to bring together perspectives, knowledge, and insights among practitioners and researchers who have firsthand experience working on getting contentious things built. The Science of Siting Clean Energy report summarizes key takeaways from the workshops and presents four ideas that could offer a productive path forward that would both support procedurally just decision-making and accelerate the deployment of renewable energy infrastructure. 
• The Infrastructure team also published the first in a series of three blog posts on dual-use siting, or the practice of co-locating solar with other land uses. This first post, authored by Natalie Manitius, provides an overview of dual-use siting and technology types.
• The Carbon Capture team published a new report on their recommendations for the EU Industrial Carbon Management Strategy. 
• The Climate Equity Initiative hosted its final report launch webinar, highlighting key takeaways from the report, Community Health Impacts of Air Pollution in the U.S.
• Methane Pollution Prevention Global Director, Jonathan Banks, participated in a TED-talk style event in Santiago, Chile, highlighting the impact of methane emissions on climate during Congreso Futuro 2024. 
• The Land Systems team is hosting an internal, CATF-wide seminar series that kicks off on February 8. This bimonthly event will feature experts working at the intersection of land and climate systems, exploring their latest research. Join Dr. Jennifer Pett-Ridge to explore the Roads to Removal report – a U.S. national collaborative effort that examines regionally specific opportunities to address climate change and the urgent need to remove and store CO2 at the gigaton scale. 
• The EU institutions reached a deal on CO2 emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles that the EU Advocacy and Transportation Decarbonization teams worked on for almost two years. While the level of CO2 emission reductions required is not as high as CATF would recommend, these standards are nonetheless world-leading, center zero-emission vehicles, and will act as a powerful incentive for this transportation segment to accelerate its decarbonization. 
• Energy Systems Analysis co-authored report titled, Data-to-Deal (D2D): An emerging and effective approach to financing the climate transition, that was published in Cambridge University Press. This was a collaboration with over 60 experts to develop a flexible framework for developing nations to access financing necessary to meet their climate goals. 
• CATF's Fusion Energy program has been ramping up with visits to two Chinese national laboratories working on fusion, a presentation to the Fusion Power Associates Annual Meeting, and a speaking opportunity at the International Nuclear Energy Colloquium. 
• The Zero-Carbon Fuels team joined EU Advocacy to meet with DG ENER to discuss the Hydrogen Bank and provide recommendations for the international leg of the initiative. 
• The Superhot Rock Energy team is celebrating the European Parliament overwhelmingly passing a resolution promoting development of geothermal energy development. The Europe team deserves credit for briefing members on the value proposition of geothermal energy, particularly superhot rock.   
• The Advanced Nuclear team has been working on refining 2024 strategies for the Global Playbook for Nuclear Energy Development, Nuclear Energy at Scale, U.S. domestic deployment, nuclear hydrogen, and other initiatives. One of the key approaches involves participating in the first-ever Nuclear Energy Summit organized by the IAEA to be held in Brussels on March 21-22. 
• Olivia Azadegan joined the World Economic Forum in Davos where she connected with multiple potential funders who have invited CATF’s Middle East and North Africa team to present within their networks. 

All program & advocacy updates →

Full List of Publications This Month

Blogs

• Climate Pollution Reduction Grants: Industrial pathways to decarbonization – Lindsay Cooper and Jeremy Tarr 
• Dual-use solar: What it is and how it can help ease tensions between clean energy deployment and land use – Natalie Manitius 
• Flex-fuel shipping: Designing and operating commercial ships to meet climate targets – John Steelman 
• Heavy-duty vehicles emit a lot of air pollution. EPA can change that. – Veronica Saltzman 
• The technical potential for clean energy deployment on BLM and other federal lands in the lower forty-eight United States – Jessi Eidbo and Mikenna Montgomery 
• EPA must finalize strong carbon pollution standards for all coal and gas power plants – Frank Sturges 
• Mastering methane: How Nigeria and Clean Air Task Force are taking on methane pollution together – Mohammed Dahiru Aminu

Press Statements

• U.S. EPA signs proposal to implement a charge on excess methane emissions from oil and gas industry, a critical tool for timely methane reductions from the largest industrial polluter 
• Vessels retrofitted for ammonia fuel can cost less to operate than fossil fuel ships, finds CATF report 

Reports

• The Science of Siting Clean Energy 
• Managing the Transition to Zero-Carbon Marine Fuels 
• Recommendations for the EU Industrial Carbon Management Strategy
• Community Health Impacts of Air Pollution in the U.S.

FACT SHEETS

• Climate Pollution Reduction Grants for Emissions Reductions in the Industrial Sector 

Comms Corner

Media Training

The CATF Comms team provides in-house media training! Learn how to effectively relay your message to reporters and represent CATF in the press. Please reach out to Jazzmyn Davenport to schedule a training.  

CATF in the News

• In a joint op-ed for The Boston Globe, Armond Cohen and EFI Foundation’s Ernest Moniz wrote about what it will take to triple global nuclear energy capacity.  
• Lee Beck joined the Gener8 Podcast to discuss the global conversation on energy and how that impacts the dialogues and pledges coming from COP28. 
• Ben Grove highlighted the importance of carbon capture and storage in hard-to-abate sectors in Bloomberg.  
• Jonathan Banks explained how the EPA’s latest proposed rule will mitigate methane pollution by putting a price on wasted methane in The Washington Post.  
• Eadbhard Pernot discussed the importance of CO2 storage in Europe in EURACTIV. 
• CATF’s support for superhot rock energy was extensively referenced in an Energy Global article on geothermal projects.

View all press coverage →

Staff Pet Photo of the Month

Accounting Director Cheryl's dog Josie just had a birthday this week and turned a very young 10 years old! Josie loves spending time as an office mate alongside her two kitties, Fin and Charlie. They all love to take naps on the job by the fire, chasing toys around the house, and enjoy staring out the windows at other animals! 

If you have a pet you’d be willing to share, please submit a pet photo for the newsletter! You can do so by filling out this Teams Form.

That’s all for this month. If you made it this far — thanks for reading!