Presentation short abstract

Tracing two recent global responses to heatwaves – namely the Extreme Heat Risk Governance Framework launched at COP30, and the parametric heatwave insurance – I ask why certain models of heat management emerge, how scale is considered, and what measurements are salient, over what temporalities.

Presentation long abstract

The rise of urban temperatures and extended heatwaves in cities across the world, has led to recent global, multi-lateral responses. These responses, whether advocating individual coping mechanisms, infrastructural solutions, or financial products, imagine the future of extreme heat in specific ways. Given the differentiated risks of extreme heat amongst urban residents facing social and economic exclusion, adaptation approaches can determine how livelihoods are accessed, and housing reconfigured in increasingly unbearable weather conditions.Tracing two initiatives that have been adapted and repurposed in different contexts – namely the Extreme Heat Risk Governance Framework launched at COP30, and the parametric heatwave insurance – I ask why certain models of heat management come to fore, how the scale (of the problem) is considered, and what measurements are considered salient, over what temporalities. More specifically, I pay attention to the messiness that top-down calculable models often erase, when imagining the future, and consider the cracks through which alternative heat imaginaries, which are justice-focused, emerge.