Urban heat as a structural development challenge in rapidly growing cities

Urban heat is increasingly emerging as a major constraint on sustainable development, particularly in rapidly growing cities of the Global South. Although urban heat is commonly addressed through local adaptation and urban heat reduction measures such as urban greening, cool and super cool roofs, and building retrofits or passive design, these interventions are increasingly implemented against a backdrop of accelerating planetary warming, fiscal constraints, and persistent socio-economic inequalities. This Essay argues that urban heat should be understood not merely as an environmental, techno