Abstract
Contemporary climate responses are increasingly framed through speculative futures—models, projections, scenarios—that shape present-day policy and planning. However, this future-oriented framing often produces zones of invisibility: marginalized communities, non-human actors, or “unimportant” geographies are rendered temporarily irrelevant, deferred to an ever-later horizon of action. This paper draws on theoretical work in critical planning and urban theory to examine how the politics of anticipation can unintentionally sustain forms of unseen unsustainability. Focusing on the entanglement between temporal governance and planetary urbanization, I argue that climate planning frequently engages in a selective vision of the future, producing spatial and temporal “exceptions” that obscure long-term risks to well-being. The notion of sustainability becomes operationalized in ways that exclude alternative temporalities (slow degradation, intergenerational harm) and privilege technical or market-based solutions that defer action. The paper brings together insights from post-structuralist planning theory, speculative realism, and socio-technical transition studies to develop a conceptual toolkit for identifying and challenging these hidden deferrals. Through this lens, I propose a more reflexive approach to climate planning—one that acknowledges epistemic plurality, centers uncertainty and ethics, and opens space for politically contested visions of the future. This contribution speaks directly to the conference theme of “Unseen Unsustainability” by tracing the subtle ways in which climate governance displaces responsibility in space and time. It calls for a rethinking of both what counts as evidence and who counts in future planning, and argues for participatory, multi-scalar, and temporally sensitive frameworks of response.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2026 Special Focus—Unseen Unsustainability: Addressing Hidden Risks to Long-Term Wellbeing for All
KEYWORDS
CLIMATE GOVERNANCE, TEMPORALITY, ANTICIPATORY PLANNING, EPISTEMIC INJUSTICE, UNSEEN UNSUSTAINABILITY
