THE CLIMATE REFUGE CITY: A New Urban Imaginary in Formation

Abstract This essay examines the climate refuge city as an emerging yet underdiscussed urban imaginary. Across media, governmental and academic discourse, certain cities are increasingly framed as speculative destinations for ‘climigrants’, projected to be displaced from regions cast as ‘becoming‐unlivable’ due to floods, extreme heat or wildfires and as a new object of urban planning. This imaginary departs from the resilient city imaginary assembled post‐Hurricane Sandy in New York City, which emphasized adaptation‐in‐place through infrastructural transformation and has shaped urban planning for the past decade. In contrast, the climate refuge city envisions the preemptive abandonment of certain zones, climate migration as an imminent twenty‐first‐century reality, and the proactive production of safe havens in ‘receiver’ cities identified as infrastructurally, demographically and ecologically suited to absorb incoming populations. Through analysis of its discursive, visual and epistemological construction, this essay maps the climate refuge city as a problematization‐in‐formation, clarifying its foundational claims, political stakes and planning implications. By tracing its emergence at an early stage, I argue, researchers and practitioners can better understand and engage the premises and trajectories it is beginning to consolidate.