Feeling Environmental Transitions in Nottingham: Love, Social Justice and Place in the ‘Rebel City’

This paper explores the emotional and relational dimensions of place‐based sustainability transitions using Nottingham as a key case study, grounded in its efforts to become the first carbon neutral city in the United Kingdom. Drawing on interviews, community workshops and participant observation, it examines how love—manifested through community care, place‐based identity and collaborative practice—acts as a powerful yet contradictory force. Love can be a powerful motivator for environmental and social action whilst simultaneously generating inequalities and exclusion that threaten to undermine its transformative potential. The paper argues that for the city's climate strategy (CN28) to succeed, it must move beyond technocratic framings of transition and engage more deeply with the emotional infrastructures that shape how people relate to climate action in place. Love, here, is central to fostering just, inclusive and effective climate futures.