Paper short abstract:

This paper explores why urban planners in Mumbai have not designed urban climate adaptation projects, despite the dangers climate change poses to the city. To answer this question, I draw attention to the differentiated temporalities with which development is imagined and performed in the city.

Paper long abstract:

Over the last few years, Mumbai has regularly appeared on various (what I call) "Endangered Cities Lists"- lists of cities whose residents are most at risk from the intensified rains, cyclones and rising sea levels caused by anthropogenic climate change. Yet, while the city's various planning offices are full of capital-intensive infrastructure projects (metros, airports, highways, parks), climate adaptation or mitigation projects are noticeably absent. If planners in Mumbai do not question climate science, why is this the case? Why are urban planning departments in Mumbai, that are otherwise attuned to the future needs and demands of the city, evading addressing the potentially catastrophic impacts climate change may have on the city's present and future? Based on project documents, field interviews and a review of planning education in India, I argue that the silences around climate adaptation projects are produced by the historic and differentiated temporalities with which urban development is imagined, planned and performed in the city.