Oxford Handbook of Climate Action

Climate action encompasses all kinds of efforts to mitigate climate change. The Oxford Handbook of Climate Action examines diverse efforts globally, with chapters discussing activism or policy on every continent. The volume presents major theoretical perspectives and concrete strategies for addressing climate change in the twenty-first century. The Handbook considers both noninstitutional and institutional forms of climate action. Contributors discuss the origins of climate activism as well as important achievements in raising public awareness, increasing participation, incorporating environmental justice, and implementing climate-friendly policies. They also demonstrate why nonconventional forms of collective action are necessary and effective when existing institutions fail to address planetary warming at an appropriate pace and level of urgency. Authors cover climate action planning, renewable energy systems, reforestation, carbon capture and storage technologies, nature-based climate solutions, and just economic transitions. The scholars also identify climate action within broader systems of race, class, gender, and colonialism. Drawing from environmental science, sociology, political science, and anthropology, the Handbook gathers analyses and recommendations from an interdisciplinary field of specialists. The volume is thereby both comprehensive and accessible to students and scholars from various disciplines, making it a vital resource for anyone interested in the study of climate issues.

Paul Almeida is a Professor of Sociology and Environmental Systems at the University of California, Merced. Almeida's research centers on the efficacy of collective action at the local, national and global levels of social and political life. He has empirically examined the timing, distribution, and outcomes of dozens of large-scale campaigns whereby ordinary people and excluded social groups mobilized to protect themselves from the loss of vital necessities such as environmental quality, health care, pensions, water services/utilities, and other socio-economic rights. His recent work focuses on locally-based challenges and responses to climate change. Almeida serves as the Chair-Elect of the Collective Behavior and Social Movements (CBSM) section of the American Sociological Association.