Book
Building Postcarbon Futures
Land, Justice, and Energy Transitions
April 2026, English
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Now available for preorder.
“The vivid, provocative, and highly pragmatic collection of climate action exemplars that we’ve all been waiting for.”
—Jane Mah Hutton, author of Reciprocal Landscapes: Stories of Material Movements
What would a postcarbon future look like? How would a more just, decarbonized world require us to change the way we live? What would it take to build this world? These questions lie at the heart of Building Postcarbon Futures: Land, Justice, and Energy Transitions.
This book offers a comprehensive account of the myriad ways in which people are transforming their social, ecological, and economic systems to create more just, beautiful places in response to the climate crisis. With contributions from more than a dozen leading scholars of climate justice, Building Postcarbon Futures takes readers through 30 exemplary works of climate justice spanning 43 nations and 6 continents. Together, these illustrated case studies foreground the often-overlooked tactics, strategies, and modes of practice being employed, often by marginalized peoples, to build a more just, decarbonized world—from Cuba to Kiribati.
Building Postcarbon Futures is both a celebration of action underway and a challenge to those tasked with bringing new works of climate justice into the built and natural environments—the planners, designers, policymakers, and activists pushing this planet toward a future of collective flourishing.
About the Author
Billy Fleming is a leading voice on the role that the design of our cities, communities, and landscapes plays in responding to the climate crisis. He is founding codirector of the Climate and Community Institute, a progressive think tank focused on climate and political economy, and assistant professor of landscape architecture at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Fleming is coeditor of Design with Nature Now (Lincoln Institute 2019) and A Blueprint for Coastal Adaptation: Uniting Design, Economics, and Policy (Island Press 2021). Formerly, he cofounded and served as the inaugural Wilks Family Director of the Ian L. McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania and worked on urban policy development in the White House Domestic Policy Council during the Obama Administration.
Contributors
Catherine de Almeida, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Eliza Breder, Holly Jean Buck, Daniel Aldana Cohen, Keller Easterling, Kian Goh, Rob Holmes, Leah Kahler, Reinhold Martin, Danielle Rivera, Douglas Robb, Akira Drake Rodriguez, Matthew Seibert, Aaryaman “Sunny” Singhal, Abby Spinak, Charles Waldheim.
Reviews
“A vigorous challenge to the stultified imagination of contemporary climate policy and design.”
“A horizon of hope and a tour de force that is a must read for urban studies and social justice scholars and practitioners.”
in Inequality and Democracy at the UCLA School of Public Affairs
“This book puts the earth, the land, and the spaces we all share at the center of the climate crisis, precisely where they belong.”
“An urgent read that confronts the powerful forces that created the climate crisis with provocative prose, stunning imagery, and people and their land at its center.”
Professor of Sustainability and Environment,
University of Michigan
“An incredible contribution, offering creative models of land stewardship and climate justice that will push design practice in radical new directions.”