Environmental Politics is concerned with four aspects of the study of environmental politics, with a primary, though not exclusive, focus on the industrialised countries. First, it examines the evolution of environmental movements and parties. Second it provides analysis of the making and implementation of public policy in the area of the environment at international, national and local levels. Third, it carries comment on ideas generated by the various environmental movements and organisations, and by individual theorists. Fourth, it aims to cover the international environmental issues which are of increasing salience. Its coverage of the developing world does not reach beyond this to the affairs of individual countries, partly because of the journal’s chosen focus and partly because of the number of existing journals dealing with development.

Environmental Politics is sensitive to the distinction between the goals of conservation and of a radical reordering of political and social preferences, and aims to explore the interface between these goals, rather than to favour any one position in contemporary debates.