The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) organization comprises many partners and stakeholders around the world. Each of these partners contributes services, information, solutions and/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, climate change and the interactions between climate, people and the environment.

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 World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). WCRP regularly informs the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its subsidiary bodies on the scientific issues related to climate change.

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 World Weather Research Programme (WWRP), 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.

WCRP has a strong partnership with Future Earth and its programs. In December 2020, WCRP and Future Earth announced a partnership to jointly address major societal challenges in order to leverage the historical collaboration and strengthen the partnership between the two research programmes. 

WCRP is also 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 has scientific partnerships with projects and initiatives where strong international collaboration among different research communities is necessary to advance our knowledge of pressing scientific challenges. In January 2024 WCRP and Past Global Changes (PAGES) renewed their Scientific Partnership Agreement to maintain a mutual collaboration and develop explicit activities of mutual interest on the enhancement of climate and paleoclimate research. Similarly, in April 2017 WCRP and the Global Carbon Project (GCP) signed a Scientific Partnership Agreement to advance our knowledge of the carbon cycle and our ability to predict carbon sinks and sources in the future (News: WCRP and the Global Carbon Project sign scientific partnership).