What is the Green New Deal?
The Green New Deal is a proposal to respond to the climate crisis through public policies and programs that achieve social and economic benefits while also mitigating emissions and adapting to climate change.
The name of the Green New Deal is inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s. The term often refers to such proposals in the United States, but there have been similar proposals with significant momentum in Europe, Canada, Australia, and beyond.
This reading list features books about the Green New Deal. If you know of any good books on the subject that we haven’t included here, please let us know.
Book Inclusion Criteria
We selected books for this list based on the following criteria: accuracy, significance, engagement, and popularity. For more information on our book inclusion criteria, please visit our About page.
Do you know of a book that should be on this list? Let us know!
Books About The Green New Deal
The Green New Deal and Beyond: Ending the Climate Emergency While We Still Can by Stan Cox with forward by Noam Chomsky
A clear and urgent call for the national, social, and individual changes required to prevent catastrophic climate change.
“An iconoclast of the best kind, Stan Cox has an all-too-rare commitment to following arguments wherever they lead, however politically dangerous that turns out to be.”—Naomi Klein, author of On Fire: The (Burning) Case for the New Green Deal
“Moving to zero net carbon emissions, and fast, is the point of Stan Cox’s important new study, The Green New Deal and Beyond. Cox advocates on behalf of the GND as one step of several we need to take to stabilize the planet.”—Noam Chomsky, from the book’s foreword
The prospect of a Green New Deal is providing millions of people with a sense of hope, but scientists warn there is little time left to take the actions needed. We are at a critical point, and while the Green New Deal will be a step in the right direction, we need to do more—right now—to avoid catastrophe. In The Green New Deal and Beyond, author and plant scientist Stan Cox explains why we must abolish the use of fossil fuels as soon as possible, and how it can be done. He addresses a host of glaring issues not mentioned in the GND and guides us through visionary, achievable ideas for working toward a solution to the deepening crisis. It’s up to each of us, Cox writes, to play key roles in catalyzing the necessary transformation.
“A strictly science-based plan for effectively addressing the dire realities of climate change. . . . Convincing, painful, and a long shot—but better than the alternative.”—Kirkus Reviews
“His is a warning well worth heeding.”—Raj Patel, co-author of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet
“In The Green New Deal and Beyond, Stan Cox presents a smart, sane, and plausibly optimistic alternative to abandoning all hope.”—David Owen, author of Volume Control: Hearing in a Deafening World
“The teachings of Indigenous Peoples are still here, and it’s up to the present generation to muster the courage and resources to follow those instructions. Stan Cox reminds us of this historic dialogue and development of the Green New Deal, and helps us find the path back to those instructions.”—Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabe), author of All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life and LaDuke Chronicles
“Stan Cox suggests remedies that should ignite lively discussion and intense debate, which is sorely needed. A must-read for those who care about our shared planetary future.”—Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, co-author, Journey of the Universe
Winning the Green New Deal: Why We Must, How We Can by Guido Girgenti and Varshini Prakash
An urgent and definitive collection of essays from leaders and experts championing the Green New Deal—and a detailed playbook for how we can win it—including contributions by leading activists and progressive writers like Varshini Prakash, Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Bill McKibben, Rev William Barber II, and more.
In October 2018, scientists warned that we have less than 12 years left to transform our economy away from fossil fuels, or face catastrophic climate change. At that moment, there was no plan in the US to decarbonize our economy that fast. Less than two years later, every major Democratic presidential candidate has embraced the vision of the Green New Deal—a rapid, vast transformation of our economy to avert climate catastrophe while securing economic and racial justice for all.
What happened? A new generation of leaders confronted the political establishment in Washington DC with a simple message: the climate crisis is here, and the Green New Deal is our last, best hope for a livable future. Now comes the hard part: turning that vision into the law of the land.
In Winning a Green New Deal, leading youth activists, journalists, and policymakers explain why we need a transformative agenda to avert climate catastrophe, and how our movement can organize to win. Featuring essays by Varshini Prakash, cofounder of Sunrise Movement; Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Green New Deal policy architect; Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize–winning economist; Bill McKibben, internationally renowned environmentalist; Mary Kay Henry, the President of the Service Employees International Union, and others we’ll learn why the climate crisis cannot be solved unless we also confront inequality and racism, how movements can redefine what’s politically possible and overcome the opposition of fossil fuel billionaires, and how a Green New Deal will build a just and thriving economy for all of us.
For anyone looking to understand the movement for a Green New Deal, and join the fight for a livable future, there is no resource as clear and practical as Winning the Green New Deal.
Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal: The Political Economy of Saving the Planet by Noam Chomsky, Robert Pollin, and C. J. Polychroniou
An engaging conversation with Noam Chomsky—revered public intellectual and Manufacturing Consent author—about climate change, capitalism, and how a global Green New Deal can save the planet.
Climate change: watershed or endgame?
An engaging conversation public intellectual and Manufacturing Consent author Noam Chomsky about the climate change, capitalism, and how a global Green New Deal can save the planet.
In this compelling new book, Noam Chomsky, the world’s leading public intellectual, and Robert Pollin, a renowned progressive economist, map out the catastrophic consequences of unchecked climate change—and present a realistic blueprint for change: the Green New Deal.
Together, Chomsky and Pollin show how the forecasts for a hotter planet strain the imagination: vast stretches of the Earth will become uninhabitable, plagued by extreme weather, drought, rising seas, and crop failure. Arguing against the misplaced fear of economic disaster and unemployment arising from the transition to a green economy, they show how this bogus concern encourages climate denialism.
Humanity must stop burning fossil fuels within the next thirty years and do so in a way that improves living standards and opportunities for working people. This is the goal of the Green New Deal and, as the authors make clear, it is entirely feasible. Climate change is an emergency that cannot be ignored. This book shows how it can be overcome both politically and economically.
Financing the Green New Deal: A Plan of Action and Renewal by Robert C. Hockett
Climate scientists have determined that we must act now to prevent an irreversible and catastrophic climatic tipping point, beyond which neither our own nor many other species can be assumed likely to survive. On the way to that bleak ending, moreover, extreme socio-economic injustice and associated political breakdown—now well underway in nations already hard-hit by environmental crisis—can be expected to hasten as well.
The time has thus come to plan carefully, thoroughly, and on a scale commensurate with the crisis we face. This book, written by one of the key architects of the Green New Deal and prefaced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s former Chief of Staff, indicates how to structure Green New Deal finance in a manner that advances the cross-cutting goals of maximum financial and economic inclusion, maximally democratic decision-making, and an appropriate division of roles both among all levels of government and among public and private sector decision-makers.
Integrating into one complete and coherent financial architecture such bold ideas as a ‘People’s Fed,’ an interdepartmental National Investment Council, integrated state and regional public banks, a Democratic Digital Dollar and digital Taxpayer Savings and Transaction Accounts made part of the monetary policy transmission belt, and an economy-wide Price Stabilization Fund, this book is critical reading for policymakers and citizens looking for a fresh path forward towards a revived and sustainable, progressive and productive America.
A Left Green New Deal: An Internationalist Blueprint by Becker Riexinger, Lia Becker, and Katharina Dahme
What does a successful socialist Green New Deal look like?
With the cascading effects of multiple ongoing health and economic crises, conditions are ripe for the emergence of a global progressive social project capable of moving us beyond business-as-usual and eradicating the fundamental causes of misery: namely, a global Green New Deal. But simply creating new “green jobs” within the current capitalist system is not nearly enough. If we are to take on climate change, it is imperative that we first of all engage in “system change,” a process rooted in socialism. Shifting beyond the American notion of the Green New Deal and adding vital internationalist dimension, A Left Green New Deal provides just such a blueprint for this worldwide undertaking.
Written by Bernd Riexinger and his team in the German DIE LINKE [the left] Party, A Left Green New Deal unveils the powerful opponents of a genuine, left-wing Green New Deal–corporations, the wealthy, the ultra-rich and their political allies. But it also discloses the creation of a potent new counterforce, embodied in a left-wing mobilization strategy developed by DIE LINKE. This organizing model is based in “connective party politics”– transformative organizing practices that reach across class lines within and beyond the party. This essential book provides both a Left Green New Deal platform and the inspiration necessary to lay a path towards an alternate future.
Science for a Green New Deal: Connecting Climate, Economics, and Social Justice by Jonathan W. Barker
“The Green New Deal is the best and most comprehensive way to address the environmental disasters we are facing, especially the crises spawned by global climate change. Jonathan Barker also believes it is the best way to love our neighbors–given all the people who are impacted by more intense storms, rampant fires, intolerable heat waves, rising oceans, new diseases, and more. Offered here is an impassioned plea for action at the individual, social, and legislative level from someone who is truly walking the walk by fasting for 12 days to get our attention! Rooted in the conviction that Jesus cares for the most vulnerable in the darkest of times, Reverend Barker is a pastor to Earth community by offering us a vision of what our world could be like when we love our neighbors. You better read this powerful little book. Of course Jesus would demand a Green New Deal, because it offers help for the creation and hope for humanity. So, now, what are we going to do about that?”
—David Rhoads, Professor Emeritus at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Editor, Earth and Word: Classic Sermons on Saving the Planet”
It seems commonly acceptable for a political candidate to share how their faith fuels their efforts, but what about how people of faith act in response to politics? Many preachers shy away from such conversations for fear of alienating anyone. Some faith leaders decide to go beyond talking and act on the conviction that how we vote is directly related to how well we treat our neighbor. Rev. Jonathan Barker shares his continuing journey, rooted in scripture and expressed as true public witness. While his actions show the courageous works of a shepherd, his personal account offers the humble voice of a testament to what we are each capable of offering.”
—Phoebe Morad, Director of Lutherans Restoring Creation
The Green New Deal and the Future of Work edited by Craig Calhoun and Benjamin Fong
Catastrophic climate change overshadows the present and the future. Wrenching economic transformations have devastated workers and hollowed out communities. However, those fighting for jobs and those fighting for the planet have often been at odds. Does the world face two separate crises, environmental and economic? The promise of the Green New Deal is to tackle the threat of climate change through the empowerment of working people and the strengthening of democracy. In this view, the crisis of nature and the crisis of work must be addressed together–or they will not be addressed at all.
This book brings together leading experts to explore the possibilities of the Green New Deal, emphasizing the future of work. Together, they examine transformations that are already underway and put forth bold new proposals that can provide jobs while reducing carbon consumption–building a world that is sustainable both economically and ecologically. Contributors also debate urgent questions: What is the value of a federal jobs program, or even a jobs guarantee? How do we alleviate the miseries and precarity of work? In key economic sectors, including energy, transportation, housing, agriculture, and care work, what kind of work is needed today? How does the New Deal provide guidance in addressing these questions, and how can a Green New Deal revive democracy? Above all, this book shows, the Green New Deal offers hope for a better tomorrow–but only if it accounts for work’s past transformations and shapes its future.
Product Details
Sustainable Cities in American Democracy: From Postwar Urbanism to a Civic Green New Deal by Carmen Sirianni
We face two global threats: the climate crisis and a crisis of democracy. Located at the crux of these crises, sustainable cities build on the foundations and resources of democracy to make our increasingly urban world more resilient and just. Sustainable Cities in American Democracy focuses on this effort as it emerged and developed over the past decades in the institutional field of sustainable cities–a vital response to environmental degradation and climate change that is shaped by civic and democratic action.
Carmen Sirianni shows how various kinds of civic associations and grassroots mobilizing figure in this story, especially as they began to explicitly link conservation to the future of our democracy and then develop sustainable cities as a democratic project. These organizations are national, local, or multitiered, from the League of Women Voters to the Natural Resources Defense Council to bicycle and watershed associations. Some challenge city government agencies contentiously, while others seek collaboration; many do both at some point. Sirianni uses a range of analytic approaches–from scholarly disciplines, policy design, urban governance, social movements, democratic theory, public administration, and planning–to understand how such diverse civic and professional associations have come to be both an ecology of organizations and a systemic and coherent project.
The institutional field of sustainable cities has emerged with some core democratic norms and civic practices but also with many tensions and trade-offs that must be crafted and revised strategically in the face of new opportunities and persistent shortfalls. Sirianni’s account draws ambitious yet pragmatic and hopeful lessons for a “Civic Green New Deal” — a policy design for building sustainable and resilient cities on much more robust foundations in the decades ahead while also addressing democratic deficits in our polarized political culture.
The Case for the Green New Deal by Jonathan W. Barker
What is the Green New Deal and how can we afford it?
To protect the future of life on earth, we need to do more than just reimagine the economy–we have to change everything. One of the seminal thinkers of the program that helped ignite the US Green New Deal campaign, Ann Pettifor explains how we can afford what we can do, and what we need to do, before it is too late.
The Case for the Green New Deal argues that economic change is wholly possible, based on the understanding that finance, the economy and the ecosystem are all tightly bound together. The GND demands total decarbonization and a commitment to an economy based on fairness and social justice. It proposes a radical new understanding of the international monetary system. Pettifor offers a roadmap for financial reform both nationally and globally, taking the economy back from the 1%. This is a radical, urgent manifesto that we must act on now.
The Green New Deal: Why the Fossil Fuel Civilization Will Collapse by 2028, and the Bold Economic Plan to Save Life on Earth by Jeremy Rifkin
An urgent plan to confront climate change, transform the American economy, and create a green post-fossil fuel culture.
A new vision for America’s future is quickly gaining momentum. Facing a global emergency, a younger generation is spearheading a national conversation around a Green New Deal and setting the agenda for a bold political movement with the potential to revolutionize society. Millennials, the largest voting bloc in the country, are now leading on the issue of climate change.
While the Green New Deal has become a lightning rod in the political sphere, there is a parallel movement emerging within the business community that will shake the very foundation of the global economy in coming years. Key sectors of the economy are fast-decoupling from fossil fuels in favor of ever cheaper solar and wind energies and the new business opportunities and employment that accompany them. New studies are sounding the alarm that trillions of dollars in stranded fossil fuel assets could create a carbon bubble likely to burst by 2028, causing the collapse of the fossil fuel civilization. The marketplace is speaking, and governments will need to adapt if they are to survive and prosper.
In The Green New Deal, New York Times bestselling author and renowned economic theorist Jeremy Rifkin delivers the political narrative and economic plan for the Green New Deal that we need at this critical moment in history. The concurrence of a stranded fossil fuel assets bubble and a green political vision opens up the possibility of a massive shift to a post-carbon ecological era, in time to prevent a temperature rise that will tip us over the edge into runaway climate change. With twenty-five years of experience implementing Green New Deal-style transitions for both the European Union and the People’s Republic of China, Rifkin offers his vision for how to transform the global economy and save life on Earth.
The Future Is Not Fixed: Short Plays Envisioning a Global Green New Deal compiled by Chantal Bilodeau
For all of the political, economic, and technological obstacles that stand in the way of addressing climate change, perhaps the greatest challenge is in the realm of imagination. Can we envision a better world? What might an equitable, sustainable, decarbonized, and just society look like? What if the concept of a Green New Deal—the initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while addressing interwoven social problems like economic inequality and racial injustice—could become reality?
The Future Is Not Fixed presents a dazzling variety of answers to these questions in the form of fifty plays—from writers representing all inhabited continents—commissioned for Climate Change Theatre Action 2021, a global participatory theatre festival that brings communities together around climate issues. The pieces gathered here feature a wide range of styles and perspectives, from realist dramas to experimental works, encompassing the dangers that we face as well as ecstatic possibilities for a renewed social contract. With contributions suitable for both conventional and nonstandard theatrical settings, these plays can be performed in intimate readings, staged productions with extensive sets and props, and everything in between. Climate Change Theatre Action plays have been performed on street corners, at the foot of glaciers, in churches, schools, libraries, backyards, community centers, and bars. They have been enjoyed by audiences as diverse as water treatment workers in Montana; homeless youth in London; refugees in Denmark; children in New York City, Iran, and Nigeria; faith communities in Florida and Washington State; unsuspecting passersby in Brazil and New Zealand; and students in every corner of the world. Regardless of style, audience, or venue, each play offers a bracing, affecting vision of how we might come together to face the challenge of global climate change.
A People’s Green New Deal by Max Ajl
“Hands-down the best book yet on the Green New Deal. Courageous, bold, refreshing….envisions an ecosocialist transition that is rooted in principles of global justice”–Jason Hickel, author, Less is More
The idea of a Green New Deal was launched into popular consciousness by US Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018 as a way to fight climate change and address wealth inequality. It has become a watchword in the current era of global climate crisis.
But what, and for whom, is the Green New Deal? And when can we expect the US government, and other governments to commit themselves to facing what is clearly a planet-wide danger?
In this concise and urgent book, Max Ajl provides an overview of the various mainstream Green New Deals. Critically engaging with their proponents, ideological underpinnings and limitations, he goes on to sketch out a radical alternative: a “People’s Green New Deal” committed to decommodification, working-class power, anti-imperialism and agro-ecology. Chapters include:
- Green Transition – or Fortress Eco-Nationalism?
- Change Without Change: Eco-Modernism
- Energy Use, Degrowth, and the Green New Deal
- Green Social Democracy or Eco-Socialism?
- The World We Wish to See
- Green Anti-Imperialism and the National Question
Ajl diagnoses the roots of the current socio-ecological crisis as emerging from a world-system dominated by the logics of capitalism and imperialism. Resolving this crisis, he argues, requires nothing less than an infrastructural and agricultural transformation in the Global North, and the industrial convergence between North and South. As the climate crisis deepens and the literature on the subject grows, A People’s Green New Deal contributes a distinctive perspective to the debate.
On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal by Naomi Klein
#1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author Naomi Klein makes the case for a Green New Deal in this “keenly argued, well-researched, and impassioned” manifesto (The Washington Post).
An instant bestseller, On Fire shows Klein at her most prophetic and philosophical, investigating the climate crisis not only as a profound political challenge but also as a spiritual and imaginative one. Delving into topics ranging from the clash between ecological time and our culture of “perpetual now,” to the soaring history of humans changing and evolving rapidly in the face of grave threats, to rising white supremacy and fortressed borders as a form of “climate barbarism,” this is a rousing call to action for a planet on the brink.
An expansive, far-ranging exploration that sees the battle for a greener world as indistinguishable from the fight for our lives, On Fire captures the burning urgency of the climate crisis, as well as the fiery energy of a rising political movement demanding a catalytic Green New Deal.
“Naomi Klein’s work has always moved and guided me. She is the great chronicler of our age of climate emergency, an inspirer of generations.” –Greta Thunberg, climate activist
If I were a rich man, I’d buy 245 million copies of Naomi Klein’s ‘On Fire’ and hand-deliver them to every eligible voter in America…Klein is a skilled writer. –Jeff Goodell, The New York Times
Jesus Would Demand A Green New Deal: The Story of Why One Christian Pastor Went On a 12-Day Fast for the Green New Deal by Jonathan W. Barker
“The Green New Deal is the best and most comprehensive way to address the environmental disasters we are facing, especially the crises spawned by global climate change. Jonathan Barker also believes it is the best way to love our neighbors–given all the people who are impacted by more intense storms, rampant fires, intolerable heat waves, rising oceans, new diseases, and more. Offered here is an impassioned plea for action at the individual, social, and legislative level from someone who is truly walking the walk by fasting for 12 days to get our attention! Rooted in the conviction that Jesus cares for the most vulnerable in the darkest of times, Reverend Barker is a pastor to Earth community by offering us a vision of what our world could be like when we love our neighbors. You better read this powerful little book. Of course Jesus would demand a Green New Deal, because it offers help for the creation and hope for humanity. So, now, what are we going to do about that?”
—David Rhoads, Professor Emeritus at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Editor, Earth and Word: Classic Sermons on Saving the Planet”
It seems commonly acceptable for a political candidate to share how their faith fuels their efforts, but what about how people of faith act in response to politics? Many preachers shy away from such conversations for fear of alienating anyone. Some faith leaders decide to go beyond talking and act on the conviction that how we vote is directly related to how well we treat our neighbor. Rev. Jonathan Barker shares his continuing journey, rooted in scripture and expressed as true public witness. While his actions show the courageous works of a shepherd, his personal account offers the humble voice of a testament to what we are each capable of offering.”
—Phoebe Morad, Director of Lutherans Restoring Creation
A Planning Framework for the Green New Deal: Planning a Sustainable Future by Duane Errol Fleming
A PLANNING FRAMEWORK
FOR THE GREEN NEW DEAL
There are five critical problems that we must deal with as soon as possible:
- 1. We must rapidly produce renewable and safe nuclear reactor energy to reduce and eliminate carbon dioxide in the atmosphere;
- 2. We need to create 47 million sustainable jobs to replace those that will be eliminated by automation;
- 3. We need to build massive amounts of affordable workforce housing;
- 4. We need to eliminate gas-driven cars and replace them with renewable energy cars and mass transit;
- 5. We must replace shareholder capitalism with worker-owned cooperatives which pay a livelihood wage, and supply a comfortable retirement and health care, in exchange for a lifetime of work.
All of these projects can be accomplished by using a New Town planning framework. We need to build New Towns for the 21st Century across the United States. By using this planning framework, we can use all of the advanced knowledge of city planners, architects, engineers and farmers. We will be able to use our “best practices” and new technologies, including recycling and regenerative agriculture and forestry to create carbon dioxide sinks. The billionaires of the world have a rich opportunity to advance the forward days of humankind with an urgent and uniting work effort.
Posters for a Green New Deal: 50 Removable Posters to Inspire Change by Creative Action Network
“The Green New Deal is the most exciting idea in American politics for decades––and as theses powerful posters make clear, it’s grabbed the attention not just of policy wonks but of artists who can translate these ideas into images that move us.”––Bill McKibben, bestselling author of Deep Economy
Posters with a purpose. A clarion call for our time, the Green New Deal is a bold and far-reaching legislative plan to fight climate change, create millions of good-paying jobs, promote economic and racial equality, and so much more. In its ambition, it’s a vision that mirrors President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, which helped pull the country out of the Great Depression. And just as WPA artists mustered support for the New Deal with their work, here are 50 powerful posters to champion the Green New Deal. The posters are original, colorful, and visually striking, with text on the back that explains each issue and how the Green New Deal seeks to address it. Perforated pages make them easy to tear out and hang or use as signs at marches and demonstrations, because it’s not just a book to flip through. Climate change affects everything: the air we breath, the water we drink, the food we eat, the places we call home, and the people we love. And the time to act on it is now.
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