The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) leads the way in addressing frontier scientific questions related to the coupled climate system — questions that are too large and too complex to be tackled by a single nation, agency or scientific discipline. Through international science coordination and partnerships, WCRP contributes to advancing our understanding of the multi-scale dynamic interactions between natural and social systems that affect climate.

WCRP engages productively through these partnerships to inform the development of policies and services and to promote science education. Most critically, WCRP-supported research provides the climate science that underpins the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, including national commitments under the Paris Agreement of 2015, and contributes to the knowledge that supports the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and multilateral environmental conventions.

In 2019, the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee and WCRP’s three co-sponsors (WMO, IOC-UNESCO and ISC) approved a new WCRP Strategic Plan. Throughout this year, the community has been discussing how the plan can be implemented to deliver a new WCRP that is ready to tackle the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities of climate science in the next decade.

More information WCRP Strategic Plan 2019-2028