This study transcends the homogenizing (inter-)national level of argumentation (rich versus poor countries), and instead looks at a sub-national level in two respects: (1) geographically it focuses on the rapidly growing megacity of Hyderabad; (2) in socio-economic terms the urban population is disaggregated by taking a lifestyle typology approach. For the first time, the lifestyle concept traditionally being used in affluent consumer societies is applied to a dynamically transforming and socially heterogeneous urban society. Methodically, the author includes India-specific value orientations as well as social practices as markers of social structural differentiation. The study identifies differentials of lifestyle-induced GHG emissions (carbon footprints) and underlines the ambiguity of a purely income based differentiation with regard to the levels of contribution to the climate problem.

Dr. Lutz Meyer-Ohlendorf is a social geographer at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany.

Chapter1. Introduction: Climate change and lifestyle the relevance of new concepts for socialecological research.- Chapter2. Approaches of measuring human impacts on climate change.- Chapter3. The research context: India and the megacity of Hyderabad.- Chapter4. Conceptualisation and operationalisation A social geography of climate change: Social-cultural mentalities, lifestyle, and related GHG emission effects in Indian cities.- Chapter5. Results part I Descriptive analysis of manifest variables and preparation of latent components for the lifestyle analysis.- Chapter6. Results part II Income, practice, and lifestyle-oriented analysis of personal-level GHG emissions.- Chapter7. Discussion.- Chapter8. Final conclusions Understanding inequalities in consumption-based, personal level GHG emissions.