Globally, research on climate dynamics and change generates new information and insights on an almost daily basis. This information has profound implications for human understanding of climate systems and the changes we face as climate conditions evolve, whether due to natural causes or anthropogenic forcing. These new insights, however, as with the climate systems themselves, often remain far above the ground - distant and divorced from the daily realities that shape lives, livelihoods and the responses of ordinary people to change.

This study traces the understanding between emerging global scientific knowledge on climate change and local communities in India and Nepal. Research on climate dynamics and change generate new information and insights. Such information helps to assess human understanding of climate system and evolving nature of climate condition.

Key findings include:

Difficulty in communicating different types of knowledge across major cultural, educational and other boundaries;
Very limited array of climate “information products” available that are targeted toward regional contexts and, more profoundly, the types of information on climate change currently produced by the global scientific community;
Fundamental differences between the types of information local actors “would like to have” and the types of information produced by the global scientific community; and
The need to develop processes for communicating emerging climate information into local contexts and integrating global and local knowledge sources.

The paper concludes by stating that it is imperative to promote a process of adaptive learning involving actors from all levels, the villages on up to the national government, that feeds into policy implementation, making and enforcement. Each group of actors has their own sets of desires and policies that combine to influence the behaviors and actions of key actors at various levels.