Behind every COP are the climate models that predict Earth’s future. Here’s how they work

November 21, 2025

This is a recent article in The Conversation, authored by our Director, Professor Andy Hogg and CSIRO’s Principal Research Scientist, Tilo Ziehn

Over the past week we’ve witnessed the many political discussions that go with the territory of a COP – or, more verbosely, the “Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change”.

COP30 is the latest event in annual meetings aiming to reach global agreement on how to address climate change. But political events such as COP base the need for action on available science – to understand recent changes and to predict the magnitude and impact of future change.

This information is provided through other international activities – such as regular assessment reports that are written by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These reports are based on the best available scientific knowledge.

But how exactly do they evaluate what will happen in the future?

Read why and more on the complete, original article here: Behind every COP is a global data project that predicts Earth’s future. Here’s how it works

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Credit image: Owen Kaluza, ACCESS-NRI

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