ABSTRACT

The world is on pace to warm-up well in excess of 2°C, locking in irreversible sea-level rises of at least two meters. This means that the entire bottom third of Florida will be inundated by 2100, and Miami and New Orleans will have to be abandoned. Many other major global cities will face catastrophic flooding, with Asian megacities like Shanghai, Shenzhen, Bangkok, Mumbai, Dhaka and Osaka worst affected. Cities consequently need to adapt to anthropogenic climate disasters, but they must do so in a way that does not intensify the already appalling inequalities that characterize the world’s extreme cities. How might climate adaptation be seen as an opportunity to heal the suppurating wounds of the extreme city rather than to widen this damage? How can we frame (and implement) redemptive urban imaginaries in order to shore up social solidarity and heal the divisions that imperil urban sustainability? This chapter focuses on two examples of cmate action plans, which are increasingly essential tools for envisioning an equitable urban future during an age of climate chaos.