Gauri Varma

Gauri was just 6 years old when the “Every Drop Counts” campaign took her country by storm. That was now 20 years ago, and 2026 has been recorded as the hottest year yet. Climate change has never been distant in the Global South, and the city of Bengaluru she was once proud to call home has since become synonymous with congestion and water scarcity.

Having worked with migrant and marginalized communities as a teacher, Gauri is now a student of public policy at The Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, where she’s learning to connect the dots between labour, urban, social and climate policy. At Hot or Cool, she handles communications and manages the organisation’s social media presence.

When she isn’t worrying about data centres, she loves to read, cook, hike and swim.