This paper reports on findings from 30 focus group discussions and 30 key informant interviews conducted in 12 districts of Bangladesh in May 2012. The discussions and interviews draw attention to perceptions of climate change and how climate-related trends influence people’s lives, both directly and indirectly. The findings also identify how people adapt to and cope with these changes. This paper aims to improve our understanding of local people’s perceptions of these changes, explore the ways they are affected by them, and how well they are adapting to them. In order for policymakers to plan responses to climate change in Bangladesh, it is essential to understand how people understand and cope with these trends. The research showed that most respondents had a clear understanding of what was directly affecting their lives and livelihoods in terms of climate trends and the wider environment over the long term. Most respondents were also aware of the usually limited options available to them to adapt to the changes they experience. However, the respondents were less able to understand differences between climate variability and climate change or the causes of the trends they observed. The respondents reported that adaptation allowed them to cope with declining groundwater levels for agriculture and domestic use, hotter weather, reduced and unpredictable rainfall at key times of the year, more intense extreme weather events such as storms, cyclones, floods, and tornados, and increased salinity of groundwater in coastal areas. Adaptation and coping varied according to location, livelihood, and the assets and endowments people have at their disposal. Participants were particularly concerned that agricultural productivity is being undermined by increased input costs, increasingly scarce irrigation water, and diminished crop yields. They report changed cropping patterns and that many poorer households formerly supported by agriculture were moving into small, nonagricultural businesses or migrating to urban centers or internationally—mainly in the Middle East—for work.