ABSTRACT

This book is a theoretically rich and empirically grounded account of UK trade union engagement with climate change over the last three decades. It offers a rigorous critique of the mainstream neoliberal and ecological modernisation approaches, extending the concepts of Marxist social and employment relations theory to the climate realm. The book applies insights from employment relations to the political economy of climate change, developing a model for understanding trade union behaviour over climate matters. The strong interdisciplinary approach draws together lessons from both physical and social science, providing an original empirical investigation into the climate politics of the UK trade union movement from high level officials down to workplace climate representatives, from issues of climate jobs to workers’ climate action.

This book will be of great interest to students and researchers in environmental politics, climate change and environmental sociology.

chapter |15 pages

Introduction

chapter |29 pages

Workplace climate representation

Prisoners of neoliberalism or swords of climate justice?

chapter |22 pages

Climate and class

A missing link