Top Climate Books to Look Out for in 2026 – Recommended by Experts
- camilarosiaz
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 1 hour ago
From compelling stories to non-fiction, books can spark ideas that help us navigate the climate crisis. As part of The Conversation’s ongoing Climate Storytelling strand, climate research and creative writing experts reviewed some of the best new and upcoming titles to look out for in 2026.
Surviving Climate and Chaos: What Dinosaurs Teach Us About Climate Change and Resilience, by Evan Jevnikar (December 2025), offers a refreshing take on dinosaur narratives. Jevnikar shows how dinosaur evolution was intrinsically linked to Earth’s ever-changing climate, tracing how they rose, adapted, and diversified throughout the Mesozoic Era. He notes how human-influenced climate changes mimic prehistoric catastrophes, while also including actionable solutions such as reforestation initiatives, carbon capture technology and personal acts of climate consciousness.
Yellow Pear Press, CC BY-NC-ND
Called by the Hills: A Home in the Himalaya, by Anuradha Roy (January 2026), invites readers into the Ranikhet hillside of northern India, where “oxygen fizzes like champagne, leopards stalk the forests and langur monkey troops dance on roofs.” The book offers a personal panorama of the region and stands as both a gardening memoir and a love letter to an endless forest that now faces an ending, as climate change begins to muddle the seasons.
In Despite it All: a Handbook for Climate Hopefuls, journalist Fred Pearce argues that climate action is already underway and that defeatism only narrows our imagination. He confronts inequality, noting that the wealthiest 10% have driven two-thirds of global warming since 1990, and focuses on collective work rather than individual lifestyle tweaks. The result is “a sustained case for cautious optimism that feels earned rather than wishful.”
Despite It All is published by Granta.
Frontierlands, by Hazel Sheffield (February 2026), explores Britain’s unused buildings and properties, documenting obstacles to bringing them back into productive use while refusing pessimism. Sheffield follows artists, community organisers and tradespeople who propose collective ownership, neighbourhood co-production and low-carbon retrofitting, offering ideas for increasing resilience in the face of a wetter and hotter climate.
In The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change, Rebecca Solnit situates today’s polarisation and authoritarian resurgence within a broader historical arc. Through vivid metaphors, she argues that current turmoil signals the dying throes of patriarchy and colonialism, framing the book as a rallying call for those who yearn for a just, sustainable and flourishing society.
Rebecca Solnit. Trent Davis Bailey
Elemental: How We Will Live on a Warming Planet, by Arthur Snell (March 2026), draws on more than 25 years’ experience in conflict zones to show how climate change is coinciding with a breakdown in geopolitical order. Using earth, air, fire and water as a framework, Snell presents climate change as a force reshaping national security, economic stability and sovereignty, emphasising that outcomes depend on governance and cooperation.
Headline.
Set in a fictional English village, The Given World, by Melissa Harrison (May 2026), is rooted in nature, with birdsong and wildlife observed in fine detail. Climate change is an undertone from the start, woven into a thoughtful story that explores people’s reliance on, and complex relationship with, the natural world.
Finally, My Body is a Meadow, by Bethany Handley (May 2026), reflects on disability and the environment through a “painfully honest assessment” of how the damage done to Disabled people mirrors that being done to the planet. Handley’s poetic language explores barriers, acceptance and the conditions needed for both people and the planet to flourish.
