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The Bookseller is to publish a Climate Issue ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), with aim of interrogating what the trade can do to meet the challenge of environmental change in the wake of global warming.
The issue will be published on 15th October and will be co-edited by The Bookseller's comment editor Molly Flatt and associate editor Caroline Sanderson.
The issue will include a preview of forthcoming publications addressing the climate emergency, including books to be published ahead of COP26, which is to be held in Glasgow from 31st October to 12th November 2021. The Bookseller is also to co-operate with industry bodies to address the climate change problem, including the IPG’s Sustainability Action Group, which will be revealing the results of its Book Chain Project—an initiative that will map the journeys of six book scenarios from the point of ordering to delivery to the end consumer, measuring the level of greenhouse gas emissions at different stages and identifying key areas of waste and inefficiency—in the autumn.
Flatt said: “As weather events this summer have proved, the climate emergency isn’t a terrifying future to be found in sobering scientific non-fiction or the pages of speculative cli-fi. It’s well and truly here. In this special issue we'll highlight publishing’s most impactful initiatives so far, but also ask a range of experts from inside and outside the industry to explore how we can accelerate and expand these efforts across the chain. On the eve of COP26, we hope the climate issue will support publishers, booksellers and authors to do more, do better, do faster — and to hold each other to account."
Sanderson added: "Across fiction, non-fiction and children's publishing, books have an increasingly important role to play in rallying the hearts and minds of readers to the looming climate emergency. As Jay Griffiths writes in her visionary Why Rebel?, 'writers need to be in service to something greater than ourselves, now as never before'. So I'm delighted to have the platform of this Climate Issue to present the best of the books and authors working to this cause."
The preview will cover books from October 2021 to September 2022. Printed books for the preview may be sent, with an AI, by 26th August, to Sasha McMullin at 28 Eastview Avenue, London SE18 2HT, or an electronic AI may be sent to Tamsin.Hackett@thebookseller.com. For advertising opportunities, please contact Emma.Lowe@thebookseller.com.