In this report we underline the importance of studying the social representation of climate
change for climate policy especially in a democracy such as India. Social representations are
from a social science point of view no epiphenomena of real issues but the very fabric of
individual reality and building on that collective decision making. If climate change is not
socially represented it is not there in a society. We brie y characterise the Indian climate
discourse which we perceive as being more complex (heterogeneous) than the European or
American one. After a brief look at other studies of climate change perceptions we turn to our
own small sample of qualitative interviews (n=16) in Hyderabad covering a broad range of
issues. We then focus on the way our respondents do represent climate change in the context of
weather changes of its causes and of possible solutions. We present a typology of cognitive
maps of climate change and relate them to the lifestyle and the social context of the
respondents that adhere to it. We also try to identify some starting points for a meaningful
climate change discourse in Hyderabad aiming at the improvement of both local adaptation and
local mitigation. The report ends with some general conclusions.
