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The newly introduced Assessment Fast Track is a subset of CMIP7 experiments drawn from the community MIPs intended to support upcoming policy assessments and downstream climate services applications, such as regional downscaling (CORDEX), impacts modelling (ISIMIP), ice sheet modelling (ISMIP) and climate services (VIACS). This includes near-term policy-relevant scenarios, model characterisation experiments, attribution studies, and process understanding experiments designed to isolate key feedbacks and uncertainties in climate projections.
Development
In September 2023 the Strategic Ensemble Design (SED) Task Team provided a first proposed set of Assessment Fast Track experiments after discussions with the Task Team members, stakeholders and MIPs. Two rounds of consultation followed with the modelling centres and with the wider community. After further discussion within the SED Task Team, CMIP Panel, and with proposing MIPs, a final recommendation of the Assessment Fast Track experiment selection (figure below) was made to the WGCM meeting in March 2024, and subsequently endorsed.
Information on the Diagnostic, Evaluation and Characterization of Klima (DECK) for CMIP7, can be found on the main CMIP7 webpage.
Timeline
The CMIP Panel and WCRP ESMO Infrastructure Panel (WIP) continue to discuss and evolve the CMIP delivery timeline in close coordination with the CMIP Task Teams and through regular engagement with the wider community.
For the DECK and the subset of CMIP experiments aimed at aligning with the IPCC and other national and international climate assessments, the CMIP7 Assessment Fast Track, there can be no definitive timeline until the IPCC approve the Working Group I timeline. Community MIPs do not need to align with that timeline, although they may choose to do so. Our working timeline is outlined below – this is being reviewed regularly in consultation with the community.
The CMIP7 AFT experiments
Want to learn more about the experiments and why they were selected for the Assessment Fast Track? The interactive experiment viewer outlines why each experiment was selected.
Fast Track experiment viewer
If you are having trouble viewing the experiment viewer, you can click here to view in a new tab.
We continue to welcome all feedback from across the community. To stay up to date with the latest developments, please bookmark this page and join our mailing lists here to hear about the latest news and events.
CMIP7 scenarios
In a publication in Geoscientific Model Development (van Vuuren et al., 2026), the ScenarioMIP team describes a new set of global emissions scenarios that will form the basis for climate research as part of the ongoing phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project – CMIP7. Two important changes from the CMIP6 scenarios are that, during the 21st century, the highest global emissions scenario is now lower than in previous scenario sets, while the preliminary estimate of global temperature change associated with the lowest emissions scenario no longer remains below 1.5°C. The new high-end scenario still leads to substantial climate change, and uncertainties in the climate system mean that global warming could still exceed 4°C by 2100.
Frequently Asked Questions
We have a bank of Frequently Asked Questions about CMIP7 widely as well as the AFT available on the CMIP7 webpage.
