Air Pollution and Climate Change UNDERSTANDING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF VULNERABILITY TO CLIMATE CHANGE: A KEY STEP TOWARDS BUILDING RESILIENT COMMUNITIES Lecturer Dr. Andra Costache 1 Lecturer Dr. Ovidiu Murărescu 1 1 Valahia University of Târgovişte, Romania ABSTRACT Reducing the impact of climate change and related hazards is one of the current concerns of the international scientific community and decision makers. Given the complexity of the causes and consequences of the climate change, there is a need of integrated approaches, bringing together the expertise of natural and social sciences. Among the latter, psychology could have a significant role in analyzing and reducing the human vulnerability to climate change. Incorporation the results of the psychological research in the assessment of human vulnerability to climate change will improve: a. understanding of the factors generating the response of human communities to natural disasters; b. identification of the groups with a high degree of vulnerability to climate change and related extreme events; c. awareness to climate change exposure, as well as planning and implementation of the early-warning systems; d. efficiency of post-disaster intervention, following the occurrence of a climate-related natural hazards. Thereby, a psychological approach will not only increase the applicability of the current research on climate change and related hazards, but will also contribute to increase the resilience and adaptability of local communities to natural disasters. Keywords: climate change, human vulnerability, psychological dimensions INTRODUCTION Within the international scientific community, the increased interest on the climate change issues lead to interdisciplinary approaches, focused on thoroughly understanding the human drivers of climate change, the impact of climate change on human systems and the premises of human vulnerability and resilience to climate change related phenomena. Although the idea of bringing together the expertise of natural and social sciences is not new in the field of global change research (e.g. [1], [2]), the investigation of the psychological dimensions of the human-environment interactions gained momentum during the last two decades [3], [4], [5]. Research on the psychological dimensions of global change developed within the field of environmental psychology or as a result of targeted approaches, such as the psychology of disasters [6] and the efforts of the psychological professional organizations (e.g. American Psychological Association Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change).