From bold ideas to everyday fixes, these books show what’s possible for the planet.
This year’s top sustainability books are smart and surprisingly upbeat. We’ve rounded up ten of the best green reads that remind us what’s worth protecting – and how we might actually succeed.
Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization by Bill McKibben
Big-picture optimism about the energy transition
Climate writer and activist Bill McKibben is back with his most hopeful book yet. The big idea? Solar is exploding so fast it’s writing a new chapter for civilization. McKibben tracks the extraordinary pace of solar adoption, noting that every eight hours, China puts up a coal-fired power plant’s worth of solar panels. He describes how homeowners installing solar panels have added the equivalent of a third of Pakistan’s electric grid in a year. Meanwhile, California, the world’s sixth-largest economy, has nearly halved its natural gas use in the last two years.
He uses these snapshots to make a bigger point: renewables aren’t ‘alternative’ anymore, they’re systemic. That isn’t just good for the climate, he argues, it’s a chance to reshape fossil-based geopolitics, redistribute power (literally) and create fairer economies.
A Barrister for the Earth: Ten Cases of Hope for Our Future by Monica Feria-Tinta
Real-world environmental justice through landmark legal cases
Imagine being a lawyer whose clients include rivers, forests and endangered species. That’s Monica Feria-Tinta’s world, and it’s fascinating. In 2020, the British-Peruvian barrister acted in the first-ever ‘rights of nature’ case in Ecuador. In 2022, she helped win the Torres Strait Islanders case, in which the UN Human Rights Committee ruled that a sovereign state, Australia, had failed to take sufficient action on climate change. In this groundbreaking book, Feria-Tinta argues that ecosystems, like people, should have legal rights. Drawing on ten real landmark cases, she shows how these cases could shape global law – and maybe help the planet hold its own in court.
Life on a Little-Known Planet: Dispatches from a Changing World by Elizabeth Kolbert
Sharp environmental journalism with glimmers of hope
Elizabeth Kolbert’s collection of essays reads like a world tour of what’s disappearing and what’s being brought back to life. She describes melting ice sheets and shrinking insect populations alongside unexpected species comebacks and scientists who refuse to give up. A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Kolbert’s writing is clear and well sourced. Although there is a sense of urgency to the essays, which are taken from throughout her career, she reminds us that even in a time of crisis, regeneration is possible.
The Joyful Environmentalist by Isabel Losada
Upbeat guide to everyday green living
Long-time ‘eco-enthusiast’ Isabel Losada returns with an updated and revised edition of her 2020 hit. With wit, warmth and honest first-person stories – from arguing with restaurant staff about plastic cutlery to planting trees in the Scottish Highlands – she turns climate anxiety into joyful individual action. The book is organized in short, stand-alone chapters (Plastic, Travel, Clothes, Energy and more), each packed with practical tips. Although not everyone will be willing or able to go as far as Losada (becoming vegan or forgoing artificial lighting after sunset), the book encourages action without preaching and proves greener living can be genuinely fun.
Clearing the Air: A Hopeful Guide to Solving Climate Change — in 50 Questions and Answers by Hannah Ritchie
A myth-busting Q&A on the climate solutions already out there
Climate scientist Hannah Ritchie is brilliant at turning intimidating datasets into plain English. In her latest book, she tackles 50 of the most common (and confusing) climate questions, from the potential of electric cars to whether wind turbines really kill all the birds. Drawing on rigorous data, Ritchie dismantles a lot of arguments made by climate sceptics and highlights wins we rarely hear about: the cost of solar power has fallen by more than 90% in the last decade, battery technology has vastly improved, and there are real prospects for low-carbon cement, electrified ferries and hydrogen as a fuel for airliners. It’s science-backed, pragmatic and very reassuring reading.
The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life by Helen Whybrow
Lyrical memoir about living with and on the land
Over the course of a year on her farm in Vermont, writer Helen Whybrow tends sheep, grows blueberries and reflects on the natural rhythms we’ve drifted away from. Through evocative prose, she describes the joy of lambing season which heralds the arrival of spring, a nail-biting coyote hunt on a summer night, and a dramatic thunderstorm that is both a comment on climate change and the precariousness of farming as an occupation. The result, which was longlisted for the National Book Award in the US, is a beautiful meditation on what it means to belong to a place, and how attuning ourselves to seasonal cycles can ground us in nature.
And So I Roar by Abi Daré
Award-winning novel about resilience and climate justice
In this sequel-like novel by Nigerian-British writer Abi Daré, 14-year-old Adunni – first introduced in Daré’s breakout debut, The Girl with the Louding Voice – confronts not only personal hardship but also environmental injustice. Winner of the inaugural 2025 Climate Fiction Prize, the story moves between Lagos and a rural village to show how climate impacts deepen existing inequalities and threatens lives. Despite some weighty themes, the author’s enduring faith in the strength of individuals ultimately leaves us inspired and hopeful.
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