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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand local perceptions on climate change and its impacts on biodiversity, rangeland, agriculture and human health. Design/methodology/approach A household survey with 300 interviewees and focus group discussions with key stakeholders were conducted and validated at two steps, using the climate data from the nearest weather stations and reviewing literatures, to correlate the local perceptions on climate change and its impacts. Findings Majority of the respondents reported an increase in temperature and change in the precipitation pattern with increased hazardous incidences such as floods, avalanches and landslides. Climate change directly impacted plant distribution, species composition, disease and pest infestation, forage availability, agricultural productivity and human health risks related to infectious vector-borne diseases. Research limitations/implications Because of the remoteness and difficult terrain, there are insufficient local weather stations in the mountains providing inadequate scientific data, thus requiring extrapolation from nearest stations for long-term climate data monitoring. Practical implications The research findings recommend taking immediate actions to develop local climate change adaptation strategies through a participatory approach that would enable local communities to strengthen their adaptive capacity and resilience. Social implications Local knowledge-based perceptions on climate change and its impacts on social, ecological and economic sectors could help scientists, practitioners and policymakers to understand the ground reality and respond accordingly through effective planning and implementing adaptive measures including policy formulation. Originality/value This research focuses on combining local knowledge-based perceptions and climate science to elaborate the impacts of climate change in a localised context in Rakaposhi Valley in Karakoram Mountains of Pakistan.

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The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region has a fragile ecosystem, which is being exacerbated by climate change, posing challenges for the livelihoods and the socioeconomic development of over 240 million people living in the region and close to two billion living downstream. They are all dependent on the ecosystem services and natural resources of the HKH region, including water, hydropower, timber, biodiversity, niche products, mineral resources, and flood management. However, with a higher incidence of poverty compared to the plains, growing climate risks, and the significant socio-economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, mountain-specific recovery plans need to be devised that are guided by the principles of inclusiveness and green and resilient development that can underpin global and national sustainable development and climate change agendas.In the mountains, various units of enterprises -individuals, community organisations, and micro, small and medium enterprises -are engaged across mountains value chains. Strengthening their competitiveness and resilience has several pre-requisites, including access to technologies and markets, skills and know-how, financing, and infrastructure. Affordable, sufficient, and reliable energy supply is a crucial input that enables enterprises to drastically improve their productivity and resilience, reduce losses throughout the supply chain, diversify products and services, enable value-generating activities, and enhance access to markets and information.However, energy poverty is a fundamental challenge in the HKH mountains, characterised by a strong dependence on biomass, suppressed productive demands, and poor