The writing of the first edition of this book took several years, so it was with some relief when I began to prepare this second edition that I found the basic structure of the book still seemed to work. I have added one chapter – effectively a second on international environmental politics – in which I analyse the relationship between globalisation, trade and the environment, with a specific focus on the World Trade Organisation, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the European Union (EU). The discussion of the EU also serves as an introduction to a supranational organisation that frequently reappears in the two following chapters. Otherwise, all the chapters have been thoroughly updated, with substantially new or revised discussions of many topics, including Bjørn Lomborg, the ecological state, ecological citizenship, the experience of green parties in government, party politicisation, environmental policy integration and the use of market-based instruments.

I would like to thank Elizabeth Bomberg, Meg Huby and Chris Rootes for reading various chapters. I also received excellent advice on various revisions from Andy Dobson, Katarina Eckerberg, Arthur Mol, John Parkinson and Wolfgang Rüdig. Thanks are owed again to my students for sharpening my thoughts and to John Haslam for encouraging me to write this second edition. I would like to thank Susan Baker, and Taylor and Francis, for permission to reproduce her ‘Ladder of Sustainable Development’ in Table 8.1.