The Ministry for the Future was published by Orbit in 2020 and immediately became the most discussed climate novel of its era — Barack Obama named it one of his favorite books, and it was read by multiple heads of state and policy makers as a roadmap.
The novel opens with a devastating heat wave in Uttar Pradesh that kills twenty million people in a single week — a “wet bulb” event where temperature and humidity combine to make survival physiologically impossible even in shade with water. This atrocity catalyzes global action: the “Ministry for the Future,” a UN body established under the Paris Agreement, is given expanded powers under its director, Mary Murphy.
Robinson then chronicles three decades of transformation through dozens of short chapters in different voices and formats: policy memos, first-person testimonies, technical explanations, narrative fiction. The tools deployed range from conventional (carbon taxes, renewable energy mandates) to radical (a “carbon coin” backed by central banks that makes carbon sequestration profitable; drone attacks on private jets; the release of meltwater from beneath Antarctic glaciers to slow sea-level rise).
The novel’s power comes from its specificity — Robinson researched every mechanism he proposes — and from its refusal of both optimism and despair. Change is possible, but only through sustained, messy, sometimes violent political action.
Collecting The Ministry for the Future
First edition (Orbit, London, 2020): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $30–$60
- Signed first: $80–$150