The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) is a collaborative framework design to improve knowledge on past, present, and future climate change. Despite its global scope, participation in the CMIP community remains unequal, with the majority of contributing institutions concentrated in North America, Europe, and parts of Asia, which are Global North (GN) countries. This imbalance raises concerns about the representativeness of climate data and modelling priorities, especially for the Global South (GS), which is highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. Despite their climate sensitivity, GS countries are underrepresented in model development and analysis. This situation raises critical questions: Why is Global South inclusion within the CMIP community needed, and how can it be meaningfully achieved?
During the SIDE 1 session of the CMIP2026 workshop held in Kyoto, Japan, from March 09th to March 13th, 2026, scientists from around the world, representing diverse backgrounds and cultures, convened to discuss four key topics aimed at enhancing Global South inclusion within the CMIP community.
Key Outcomes and Perspectives from the Discussion
1. What are we missing because of Global South (GS)- Global North (GN) inequalities.
Global South-Global North inequalities lead to major gaps in global knowledge production and problem-solving by limiting the inclusion of diverse perspectives, data, and expertise. Research agendas are often shaped by GN priorities, resulting in solutions that are not well adapted to local context in GS and that overlook local knowledge and region-specific realities. The imbalance between GS and GN constrains innovation by narrowing the range of research questions, methods, and paradigms considered, while unequal collaborations frequently position GS researchers as data providers rather than leaders, weakening local research capacity and long-term sustainability. Moreover, structural barriers, including language differences and limited access to funding and publication platforms, further reduce the visibility of existing expertise in GS. As a result, global priorities and policies become distorted, technological developments risk reinforcing existing biases, and the world misses out on more inclusive, effective, and context-sensitive solutions.
2. Barries to participation and leadership.
Barriers to participation and leadership include lengthy and complex visa processes, as well as geopolitical and diplomatic constraints between GS and GN, which can delay or prevent GS researchers from attending events hosted by GN institutions. Additionally, the lack or limited access to research funding in the Global South is a barrier to fully engage in global discussions, to attend international training, conferences and workshops, as well as to maintain sustainable climate modelling development efforts. Moreover, the limited access to high performance computing, advanced modelling tools, as well as specialised training in GS, reduce their ability to contributed efficiently and undertake leadership roles. Therefore, contributed significantly to capacity building and institutional development research gap. These challenges contribute to the underrepresentation of Global South researchers within the CMIP community.
3. Early career researchers (ECRs) and pathways to inclusion
Early career researchers (ECRS) identified key challenges that limit their participation to CMIP initiatives. Lack of stable, long-term positions for many ECRs, who often move between short-term roles, which constrains their engagement in CMIP activities. So, expanding access to joint projects and fellowships opportunities would help address this challenge. Additionally, CMIP could strengthen mentorship and collaboration between GS and GN researchers, which is essential for supporting ECRs career development and fostering greater inclusion within the CMIP community. Finally, access to CMIP data remains challenging for ECRs due to the complexity of the platform, the volume of the data, as well as the gaps in the availability of certain variables.
4. Building equitable partnerships and sustainable inclusion
A key challenge in building equitable partnerships and achieving sustainable inclusion lies in meaningfully integrating regional contexts, particularly those from the Global South, into research frameworks and outputs. This gap limits visibility of existing local expertise and capacities of these regions, where valuable research is often under-recognised. This under-recognition stems not from the lack of scientific capability but from structural barriers such as language differences, restricted dissemination channels, and limited access to publication platforms. Additionally, there is a need to better acknowledge and build upon existing research knowledge and initiatives in the GS before launching new research efforts and to promote more efficient and respectful collaboration. Strengthening equitable partnerships also requires funding structures that support genuine collaboration between Global North and Global South researchers throughout the entire scientific process, from project design to analysis and authorship, rather than limiting GS participation to data collection roles. Furthermore, organising more CMIP meetings, workshops, and training sessions in GS countries would enhance inclusion and accessibility; given current visa constraints, it is often easier for GN researchers to travel to GS countries than vice versa. Such efforts would help to foster more balanced participation, strengthen regional capacity, and promote long-term and sustainable inclusion of GS in the CMIP community and global climate research as well.
Recommendations
- CMIP could increase the number of their workshops and collaborative events in the Global South in order to foster GS participation by reducing travel and visa barriers and strengthening regional research networks.
- CMIP could improve the visibility and the recognitions of the research undertaken in the Global South by encouraging citation and inclusion of GS research studies in major CMIP assessment reports.
- Create or increase fellowships for GS ECRs and equitable leadership roles for GS researchers within the CMIP community.
- Promote transparent, equitable and respectful collaboration between GS and GN on joint research projects.
- Invest in capacity building by co-developing long-term training programs in climate modelling, data analysis and management, as well as tailoring software development in GS.
