This week, I am in and out of town with the Green IO conference happening in New York! I can’t believe its finally here, I’m so excited to meet a lot of the researchers that I admire in the AI and environment space. Unfortunately, that means I need to also skip some classes this week but Green IO only comes around once a year so… I’m gonna go with Green IO lol. 🤷

I am also running a half-marathon this weekend. Fun fact, I did my first one last year during the summer! However, this is training in a way for the full marathon that I am doing in October 2026. That is going to be the real challenge since I have never run that far before in my life lol. Anyway, hope y’'all have a good week!

Say hey if you are at Green IO! 👋

Some interesting/horrifying news of the week:

Ciao, 👋

Nate

The Relationship Between Energy and AI is Evolving Rapidly (AI & Energy): The IEA's Singh and Spencer unpack their new energy and AI report, why AI expectations hinge on fast-growing data center electricity demand, and what it means for energy security and global emissions.

How AI Is Pushing the Semiconductor Supply Chain to the Limit | Bloomberg Primer (AI & Data Centers/Hardware): The global semiconductor industry is on track to become a $1 trillion market, but its supply chain is under growing strain as geopolitical tensions and rising AI demand force a rethink of how and where chips are made.

AI is Running Out of Power. Here is the Fix! (AI & Energy): Bloom Energy's Akhil Betheja explains why fuel cells are emerging as a clean solution for hyperscale computing, with millisecond load following, modular deployment, and fuel flexibility reshaping AI-era infrastructure planning.

Watts This Smell: A Comprehensive Taxonomy of Software Energy Smells (AI & Energy Efficiency): A language-agnostic taxonomy of software energy smells built from 60 papers and validated against 21,000+ Python code pairs, mapping 320 inefficiency patterns into 12 primary smells with 65 root causes.

Firm-Level Climate Change Adaptation (AI & Climate Science): An LLM-based classification system measures firm-level climate adaptation across physical protection, adaptive operations, risk transfer, financial reserves, and risk assessment, applied to 13,500+ public US firms from 2003 to 2025.

From Computation to Environmental Cost: The Resource Burden of Artificial Intelligence (AI & Environment): Quantifies the material footprint of AI training by tying computational workloads to physical hardware needs, finding training requires thousands of GPUs and several tons of hazardous elements, with diminishing returns at high material cost.

U.S. Data Center Moratoria: A Tracker of State and Local Legislative Action (AI Policy & Governance): A tracker of state and local legislative action restricting or pausing data center development across the United States.

Data Centers and the Power System (AI & Infrastructure): ENTSO-E's analysis of how Europe's grid can absorb a tripling of data center capacity in 5-7 years, including how data centers can become flexible grid assets providing fast frequency response and reserves.

24/7 Renewables: The Economics of Firm Solar and Wind (AI & Energy): Introduces firm LCOE as a project-level benchmark for round-the-clock renewable power, showing solar+storage now lands at $54-82/MWh, beating new coal in China and new gas globally.

Protecting Our Water Resources, Air Quality, and Public Health from the Data Center Buildout (AI & Environmental Impact): A panel on water ordinances, moratoriums, diesel generators, and noise protections, with on-the-ground campaign and legal strategies from organizers in Ypsilanti, Memphis, and North Carolina.

John Deere's CTO on Bringing AI to Every Acre of Farmland | Pioneers of AI (AI & Agriculture & Food Systems): CTO Jahmy Hindman breaks down how Deere is combining sensors, data, and machine learning to make farms faster, smarter, and more sustainable, sharing his vision for a fully autonomous farm.

The New Industrialists | AI Transformation: Empowering the Energy Workforce (AI & Energy): Williams is making AI a birthright for every employee, transforming field productivity and collaboration through its Microsoft partnership to power a new energy workforce.

GHGSAT (AI & Geospatial Analysis): Tracing emissions to their source at unmatched speed, delivering the data and insights required to take action. Location: North America.

Blueland (AI & Circular Economy): Reimagining everyday products to save you money and space, without any plastic waste. Location: North America.

Veolia (AI & Environment): A global leader in environmental services working to build environmental security for the benefit of public health and the competitiveness of industries and regions. Location: Europe.

Global Energy Innovation Index (AI & Energy): CFR's index measuring how thirty-nine countries contribute to improving energy technologies, drawing on sixteen indicators across knowledge, markets, and policy subindexes. Price: FREE.

Mapping the U.S. AI Policy Landscape (AI & Policy): A structured, dynamic map of the individuals and groups shaping AI policy in the United States, identifying who's working on what, where the gaps are, and which partnerships might form. Price: FREE.

The Cloud Kettle Index (AI & Energy): Estimates how much electricity Great Britain's data centres use and translates that load into kettle-boils per second, making a hard-to-picture part of the grid easier to see. Price: FREE.

If you have resources that you wish to submit to the AI & Environment Resource Hub, fill out the Google Form! Thank you for suggesting resources to add to the Resource Hub. 🙃

Thanks for reading the 40th issue of The Climate Code! It means a lot to me and we have more coming in the future, so definitely stick around! 💚

Nate

P.S.

New here? Check out the AI & Environment Resource Hub if you have no idea what it is. 😆