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In addition to the systematic characterization of climate mechanisms, CMIP supports national and international assessments. Projected climate change in coupled models due to increased greenhouse gas forcing has been part of every Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report since its inception and CMIP projections are now used extensively in national and regional climate change assessments supporting risk analysis, impact and adaptation planning.
CMIP and the IPCC
The outcomes of CMIP, including the peer-reviewed published literature across the community, contribute to assessments and reports from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations (UN), charged with advancing scientific knowledge of human impacts on climate change. The IPCC informs governments about the state of knowledge on climate change by synthesising all published literature in Assessment Reports (ARs) every 5-7 years. As such, the IPCC does not conduct its own research but tasks scientists from around with world the conduct comprehensive assessments of peer-reviewed scientific literature. Phases of CMIP have historically been designed to align with IPCC assessment reports.
CMIP data used in IPCC reports
Data, including CMIP simulations, used in IPCC reports is archived in the IPCC Data Distribution Centre (DDC). The IPCC DDC is managed by four partners, the German Climate Computing Center (Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum, DKRZ, Germany), the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN, USA), the Spanish Research Council (CSIC, Spain), and MetadataWorks (UK). Of these, DKRZ is the only remaining founding partner and has been involved in operating the DDC for over 25 years, and is the member responsible for the CMIP data used in IPCC.
IPCC Assessment Report 6
Data
CMIP6 datasets used as input for the IPCC AR6 Working Group I are available via the input data DKRZ catalogue entry and selected intermediate datasets via the intermediate data DKRZ catalogue entry. Click on ‘Find data’ to search the catalogue records and to access the data. Citation and data license information are available on the data landing pages.
Additionally, much of the data used to create the AR6 WGI figures has been archived by CEDA.
Scripts
The code used to generate many of the figures in AR6 WGI can also be found in the IPCC GitHub repository.
Earlier assessment reports
Climate model data used in previous IPCC reports, including the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (SR1.5) and AR5 can be found here.
CMIP and national climate assessments
Section under development, please contact cmip-ipo@esa.int to highlight CMIP data use in a national climate assessment.
CMIP also has an important role to play in support national and regional level climate assessments. The table below provides a summary of CMIP data use at country level:
| Country/region | Assessment document | Responsible body | Use of CMIP data |
| Australia | State of the Climate 2024 | CSIRO/Bureau of Meteorology | CMIP5 and CMIP6, downscaled for Australia |
| Canada | Canada’s Changing Climate Report (2022 update) | Environment and Climate Change Canada | CMIP5 and CMIP6 projections |
| China | Third National Climate Change Assessment | Ministry of Ecology and Environment | Uses CMIP5 and CMIP6 within China’s regional modeling framework (BNU-ESM, FGOALS). |
| European Union | European Climate Risk Assessment | European Environment Agency | CMIP6 projections, downscaled for Europe (EURO-CORDEX) |
| France | Drias Futures of Climate | Météo France | Uses CMIP5 and CMIP6, combined with CNRM-CM models and EURO-CORDEX. |
| Germany | GERICS Climate Fact Sheets | GERICS Climate Service Centre Germany | Uses CMIP6 projections, often combined with CMIP5 EURO-CORDEX downscaling. |
| Japan | Climate Change in Japan report 2020 | Japan Meteorological Agency | Uses CMIP6 and the JRA-55 reanalysis dataset. |
| New Zealand | Aotearoa New Zealand climate change projections guidance | NIWA | Uses CMIP5 and CMIP6, often with regional downscaling via VCSN (Virtual Climate Station Network). |
| South Africa | South African Risk and Vulnerability Atlas (SARVA) | Department of Science and Innovation | Uses CMIP5 and CORDEX-Africa for regional climate projections. |
| United Kingdom | UK Climate Projections (UKCP) | Met Office Hadley Centre | Uses CMIP5 (UKCP18) and CMIP6 (UKCPNext) to provide probabilistic and high-resolution UK-specific projections. |
| United States | Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA) | US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) | Uses CMIP5 and CMIP6 projections for national and regional climate impact assessments. |
