Replication data for "Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ understandings of scientific framings of climate change"

This dataset was created in order to document the analysis of the manuscript "Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ understandings of scientific framings of climate change". The term climate change can be framed in multiple ways. In dominant scientific and policy discourses, it is typically defined as a global-scale phenomenon driven by physical processes and largely detached from lived human experience. Drawing on 1,617 survey responses from 20 globally distributed sites inhabited by Indigenous Peoples and local communities whose livelihoods depend on their territories, we examine patterns in local understandings of the term climate change. Using a systematic cross-cultural analysis of respondents’ explanations—assessing references to drivers and impacts and identifying narrative frames across sites—we explore how interpretations vary by climate zone, biome, and primary livelihood activity. Our findings show, first, that many respondents do not provide explicit explanations of the term, a pattern that likely reflects linguistic, cultural, and epistemological differences rather than a lack of knowledge. Second, when explanations are offered, they emphasize locally experienced environmental impacts over abstract or global drivers, underscoring experiential and livelihood-centred perceptions. Third, these explanations are shaped by local climatic, ecological, and social contexts, demonstrating how climate zones, biomes, and livelihood activities structure understandings of climate change. Finally, narrative frames are predominantly environmental, frequently invoke human responsibility, and often intertwine moral and spiritual dimensions, reflecting holistic knowledge systems in which ecological, social, and ethical orders are deeply interconnected. By revealing systematic patterns in how Indigenous Peoples and local communities understand climate change across diverse contexts, this study highlights the importance of centring culturally grounded perspectives in research and policy to support more inclusive, locally relevant, and socially just climate action.