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Talk Intermediate

Why tech should care about the climate

Proposal status is Rejected
Session Description

This talk explores how software, hardware, and large AI models silently contribute to climate change and why engineers are already climate actors. From inefficient code and bloated apps to the carbon cost of LLMs and short device lifecycles, tech impacts climate negatively in a lot of ways. We will look at the real-world emissions behind everyday systems and show how small design decisions at scale shape planetary & existential outcomes. The goal is to make devs aware of their part in solving climate change, as it is a systems problem, with the tech industry writing the rules.

Key Takeaways
  1. Every technical decision has a carbon cost.

  2. Poor code, design bloat, frequent hardware rollouts cause energy waste at scale.

  3. Efficiency is the frontier of positive climate impact.

  4. Being a dev, you are a climate actor, even if you don't know it yet.

References

Session Categories

Engineering practice - productivity, debugging
Knowledge Commons (Open Hardware, Open Science, Open Data etc.)
Other

Which track are you applying for?

Geopolitics and Policy in FOSS Devroom

Speakers

Kaustubh Misra
Kaustubh Misra Programs Lead | Samagata Foundation

I work in tech & climate policy - bridging government, industry & academia for better impact. From shaping the National Policy on Electronics 2024 to funding EV batteries and solar cells research with DST, I've tried my hand at shaping high-level policy in my past life. In my current life, I lead programs at Samagata Foundation, exploring how to use tech for social good.