Partners

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) organization comprises many partners and stakeholders around the world. Each of these contributes services, information, solutions or funds into the global WCRP enterprise. The overarching objectives of all members of this network are to contribute to improved understanding of the climate system, climatic change and the interactions between climate, people and the environment.

Together with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) and DIVERSITAS, WCRP provides the international framework for scientific cooperation in the study of global environmental change through the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP).

WCRP participates in many WMO activities. It works closely with National Meteorological and Hydrological Services on the implementation of the Global Framework for Climate Services, in which it is expected to act as the main research component. Together with the WMO Atmospheric Research and Environment Programme, WCRP is developing a “seamless prediction system” to enable a wide range of weather, climate, hydrological and environmental predictions.

Research observations are an essential element of monitoring climate variability and change, understanding trends, and initializing models for climate prediction. WCRP’s key partnership with the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) advocates for the complete implementation of the climate observing system, with sustained support for quality-assured observations.

Scientists affiliated with WCRP produce the climate change and ozone layer projections and predictions that underpin much of the work of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as well as the Stratospheric Ozone Depletion Scientific Assessments carried out by WMO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). WCRP regularly informs the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its subsidiary bodies on the scientific issues related to climate change.

WCRP is a co-sponsor of the SysTem for Analysis, Research and Training (START), a programme to make the knowledge and the tools of climate predictions available to scientists from developing countries. The ultimate goal of WCRP is to foster scientific capacity in all nations of the world in order to address challenges and opportunities resulting from climate variability and change at the regional and global levels.

WCRP's research and network facilitation is an important contributor to efforts to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals, especially environmental sustainability and combating malaria and other diseases. WCRP is partnering with DIVERSITAS and other global environmental change programmes to build on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.