Mountains are among the regions most affected by climate change. The implications of climate change will reach far beyond mountain areas, as the contributions in the present publication prepared for the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009 show. Themes discussed are water, glaciers and permafrost, hazards, biodiversity, food security, and migration.

The topic of water availability and the possible effects of climate change on water resources are of paramount importance to the Central Asian countries. In the last decades, water supply security has turned out to be one of the major challenges for these countries. The supply initially ensured by snow and glaciers is increasingly being threatened by climate change.

The overall objective of the conference was to discuss the role of mountains as early indicators of climate change and the impact of global warming on mountain ecosystems. Specially, the actual state and the open gaps of scientific research were presented on several early indicators and in different mountain regions around the world.

Geographical information and remote sensing systems play a special role in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region in support for informed decision making.