Summer reading list | 2026
My personal round-up of essential reading on climate change, its impacts and how we can adapt to them.
As the impacts of climate change become ever more difficult to ignore, there’s greater focus around the world on what these impacts are, how we can adapt to them and how we can improve our resilience to the more severe impacts that are to come.
In this annual summer round-up, I’ve pulled together my own personal suggestions for the things I really think you should read. There are some reports, a few academic papers and several great books. As well as an excellent climate mapping tool for you to play around with.
Reports and papers
First up is the UK Climate Change Committee’s A well-adapted UK: The fourth independent assessment of UK climate risk. It provides a frank and comprehensive assessment of the climate risks facing the UK and the likely impacts of these. It also makes suggestions for things that the government – and, indeed, we as individuals – can do to adapt to these impacts. Like many reports of this nature, it’s quite wordy and goes on a bit. But the content is spot on and the charts are incredibly insightful. It also looks at the economic impact of adaptation, which is something that often gets overlooked. A worthwhile read, even if you’re not in the UK.
The World Meteorological Organisation’s State of the global climate 2025 is the authoritative source of information on – as the name suggests – the current status of our climate, from atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to surface temperatures to the extent of sea ice. It also, critically, tells us what the ongoing changes to our climate mean for our physical, social and economic systems. There’s an insightful summary, too, of high-impact weather and climate events that occurred in the year. And it’s written in an engaging and accessible way, which is always helpful. It’s also mercifully short. And it’s updated every year. Read it.
The Institute for Public Policy Research has published a hard-hitting report entitled Adapt or die: Why progressives need to deal with extreme weather. It starts by exploring the climate risks facing the UK and the potential impacts associated with these risks, before getting into the ways in which progressive policymakers can help us to mitigate and manage them. And we’re looking here not just at what we need to do, but also at how we can get people to do it. So things like messaging and communication, as well as technical solutions. A very insightful read. And you don’t, of course, have to be a progressive to read it.
In The risk of a hothouse Earth trajectory (£), a short paper published in the One Earth academic journal, a group of climate researchers explore what we know (and don’t know) about the ‘tipping points’ associated with our climate. They argue that we’re closer than we think to experiencing runaway climate change, i.e. where self-reinforcing climate feedback loops cause us to experience ever more severe climate change and associated impacts. And because we don’t know exactly where the thresholds for these tipping points lie, they suggest, the only prudent response is to take urgent precautionary action. Extremely hard-hitting and more than a little terrifying. And sorry it’s behind a paywall; I can’t find a freely-available version.
Coming at things from a different angle, in Understanding and addressing the disruptive impacts of contemporary climate crises, published in the Journal of Management Studies, a group of management academics ponders the impact of a single climate-related crisis – in this case, the Australian bushfires in 2019-2020 – on the functioning of collaborative governance arrangements. This may sound a bit niche, but it’s important to recognise that climate impacts will, inevitably, disrupt the arrangements that we have in place to respond to these very same climate impacts. And it’s better to find out what this might mean now, so that we can plan for it, rather than when – for want of a more scientific way of putting it – the wheels have come off. If you work in any form of crisis management role, this is essential reading. And even if you don’t, it’s still worth taking the time to check it out.
Books
Thinking in systems, by Donella Meadows, is the book that I recommend to everyone. It’s the best book about systems thinking that I’ve ever come across. And in case you don’t think that systems thinking is relevant to you, then please think again. Because everything in the modern world is a system. And what happens to one part of a system has an impact on other parts of it. Society’s a system. The economy’s a system. Your relationship is a system. The organisation you work in is a system. The climate’s a system. And once you understand and embrace things like positive and negative feedback loops, everything makes a whole lot more sense. If you read nothing else on this list, please read Thinking in systems. Then buy copies for everyone you know.
If you don’t know as much as you think you should about climate change and want someone to talk you through what it is, why you should worry about it and what you can do about it, Being the change by Peter Kalmus is the place to start. Peter is a climate scientist, but he writes this book as a human being and a father. He starts with an extremely well-presented and accessible summary of the science behind climate change and then moves on to what we, as human beings, can do to realign our priorities and actions in a more climate-friendly manner. Furthermore, Peter has taken his own advice, so his book provides not just insight, but also inspiration for us all.
The uninhabitable Earth, by David Wallace-Wells, is the book that really got me thinking seriously about climate adaptation and mitigation. It paints an all-too-vivid picture of the future that could (and quite possibly does) await us in a climate-changed world, addressing the full gamut of climate impacts from extreme heat and wildfires to disease, conflict and economic collapse. And while many climate analyses can be overly clinical and lacking in emotion, The uninhabitable Earth isn’t one of them. It punches you in the face and leaves you bleeding in the gutter. It’s the book we need. And once you’ve read it, your life won’t be the same again.
Statecraft, by Jack Watling, is the book I’m reading right now. It’s a gripping analysis of the state of modern geopolitics, lifting the lid on how and why global affairs are as they are. We’re used to the world being as it always has been, but it’s changing rapidly and we need desperately to keep up with the changing paradigm within which states around the world operate. And this is the book that’ll help you to do so. It covers topics ranging from Iran and Russia to the mechanics of maintaining warships and the reasons we’re hearing so much more nowadays about global chokepoints like the Panama Canal and the Strait of Hormuz. If you want to understand the world better, this book will help you out.
If you want inspiration for how you can better live in harmony with the planet, then you can do much worse than starting with the works of American author Wendell Berry. My suggestion would be The world-ending fire, which is an anthology of some of his most popular essays. Wendell lives and farms in rural Kentucky, but his writing embraces the whole of human existence. And it shows us that another way of thinking about things, and of doing things, is well within our grasp. If you want to like Thoreau but wish he’d get over himself, read Wendell Berry instead. And prepare for your perspective on life to change radically.
And finally
If you’re more into data than words, I can very much recommend the climate mapping tools published by the Probable Futures non-profit climate literacy initiative. They help you to visualise and to understand the impact of various climate scenarios on things like temperature, heat, precipitation and dryness. You can look at the world as a whole, or you can zoom in to the places that matter the most to you. I used these maps when researching and writing my recent piece on extreme heat and outdoor working and found them invaluable. So if this is your kind of thing, look no further.
Note: I’ve added hyperlinks to the publications featured on this reading list for your convenience. These aren’t affiliate links and I don’t earn any money from you clicking on them or purchasing anything. If you do choose to buy any of the books featured on this list, though, please do so at your local bookshop where you can. Or head over to bookshop.org, which works with local bookshops and helps to keep them in business.