Policy Press

Climate change, energy and sustainability

The work we publish creates an understanding of the connection between global discourses on climate change facts, specific policy responses and environmental law, contributing to ongoing debates in academia and beyond. It addresses the following UN Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal 13: Climate Action, Goal 14: Life Below Water and Goal 15: Life on Land.

Our publishing links to the global project, including the UN Agenda 2030 and provides a solid foundation for international and domestic policies around global warming, to support building impactful democratic solutions. 

Bristol University Press and Policy Press are signed up to the UN SDG Publishers Compact. In Climate change, energy and sustainability, we aim to address the following goals:

SDG Publishers compact logoSDG 7: Affordable and clean energySDG 12: Responsible consumption and productionSDG 13: Climate actionSDG 14: Life below waterSDG 15: Life on land

Showing 1-12 of 77 items.

Achieving Environmental Justice

A Cross-National Analysis

This optimistic and accessible book contributes to our understanding of the factors that shape environmental justice outcomes by assessing the extent of, and reasons for, environmental justice/injustice in seven diverse countries.

Policy Press

The Age of Low Tech

Towards a Technologically Sustainable Civilization

A best-seller in France, this English language edition introduces readers to an alternative perspective on our technological future. Bihouix skilfully goes against the grain to argue that ‘high’ technology will not solve global problems and envisages a different approach to manage our resources and build a more resilient and sustainable society.

Bristol Uni Press

Agenda for Social Justice 3

Solutions for 2024

The Agenda for Social Justice 3 provides accessible insights into some of the most pressing social problems in the United States and proposes public policy responses to those problems. Chapters include discussion of social problems related to criminal justice, the economy, food insecurity, education, healthcare, housing and immigration.

Policy Press
  • ForthcomingPaperbackGBP 14.99 Pre-order
  • Currently not availableEPUBGBP 14.99

All We Want is the Earth

Land, Labour and Movements Beyond Environmentalism

This book traces a counter-history of modern environmentalism from the 1960s to the present day. It focuses on claims concerning land, labour and social reproduction arising at important moments in the history of environmentalism made by feminist, anti-colonial, Indigenous, workers’ and agrarian movements.

Bristol Uni Press

The Approaching Great Transformation

Toward a Liveable Post Carbon Economy

The Approaching Great Transformation is about the coming shift in how we act and think economically as the era of cheap oil comes to an end. It provides inspiration for those engaged in the ongoing global effort to move away from our dependency on fossil fuels and ceaseless growth, and towards a more sustainable, stable, and just system.

Policy Press

Arctic Justice

Environment, Society and Governance

Offering a unique introduction to the study of justice in the European, North American and Russian Arctic, this collection highlights the practical consequences of postcolonial legacies and climate change while championing a sustainable future for Arctic development and governance.

Bristol Uni Press

The Biosphere and Human Society

Understanding Systems, Law, and Population Growth

Human population growth is a serious biospheric problem, yet is largely overlooked. This book fills this gap with a concise review of world population growth, including the impact of over-population on the biosphere and government interventions addressing the frequency of childbearing and immigration.

Bristol Uni Press

Calibrating Colonial Crime

Reparations and The Crime of Unjust Enrichment

Examining the harmful effects of colonisation, this book highlights the law's crucial role in driving real change. Eminent scholar Joshua Castellino proposes a five-point strategy to create a fairer system through innovative reparations and heal our planet.

Bristol Uni Press
  • ForthcomingHardbackGBP 80.00 Pre-order
  • Currently not availableEPUBGBP 27.99

The Challenge of Sustainability

Linking Politics, Education and Learning

Edited by Hugh Atkinson and Ros Wade

Exploring the links between politics, learning and sustainability this book argues that if we are to successfully meet the challenges of climate change and sustainability we need to embed a lifelong commitment to sustainability in all learning.

Policy Press

China's responsibility for climate change

Ethics, fairness and environmental policy

Edited by Paul G. Harris

This book describes China's contribution to global warming and analyzes its policy responses, examining China's practical and ethical responsibility from a variety of perspectives.

Policy Press

Cities Demanding the Earth

A New Understanding of the Climate Emergency

Unless we make drastic changes, the climate damage that we are causing by living in cities will result in terminal consumption. Providing a radical new argument that integrates global understandings of making nature and making cities, the authors move beyond current policies of mitigation and adaption towards making cities spaces for activism.

Bristol Uni Press

Climate Change and Poverty

A New Agenda for Developed Nations

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Climate change and poverty offers a timely new perspective on the ‘ecosocial’ understanding of the causes, symptoms and solutions to poverty and applies this to recent developments across a number of areas, including fuel poverty, food poverty, housing, transport and air pollution.

Policy Press


A selection of related journal articles

Volume 7, Number 1 of Global Discourse featuring:
Paris: optimism, pessimism and realism 
On the obsolescence of human beings in sustainable development
On preparing for the great gift of community that climate disasters can give us

Voluntary Sector Review themed section on 'Re-reading civil society action for environmental sustainability' featuring:
Shoots and leaves: exploring the impacts and fragile sustainability of sustainable place-making projects working with marginalised people
A part and yet apart: how third sector visions of carbon reduction are both welcomed and marginalised
The community economies of Esch-sur-Alzette: rereading the economy of Luxembourg [Open Access]
Assembling community energy democracies

Extinction Rebellion: social work, climate change and solidarity in Critical and Radical Social Work

Extinction Rebellion: a social worker’s observation in Critical and Radical Social Work

The gender dynamics of climate change on rural women's agro-based livelihoods and food security in rural Zimbabwe: implications for green social work in Critical and Radical Social Work

Climate change and food: a green social work perspective in Critical and Radical Social Work

Evidence reviews in energy and climate policy in Evidence & Policy

Contested knowledge in Dutch climate change policy in Evidence & Policy

Does risk-based decision-making present an ‘epistemic trap’ for climate change policymaking? in Evidence & Policy

British political values, attitudes to climate change, and travel behaviour in Policy & Politics

Policies, politics and organisational problems: multiple streams and the implementation of targets in UK government in Policy & Politics

Electricity market reform: so what's new? in Policy & Politics

What’s the Use of Green Shame? from the Global Discourse blog

Green shame: the next moral revolution? from Global Discourse