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

Together with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) and DIVERSITAS, WCRP provides the international framework for scientific cooperation in the study of global environmental change through the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP).

WCRP research addresses the many outstanding issues of scientific uncertainty in the Earth's climate system. WCRP scientists and its activities contribute significantly to the collection and improvement of climate observations, model development and understanding of the climate system necessary for the detection and attribution of past climate change, and the provision of climate information, including projections of future change, assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). WCRP activities match the scientific priorities identified by the IPCC, provide the basis for responding to issues raised in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and underpin efforts to meet the research challenges posed in Agenda 21.

WCRP's research and network facilitation is an important contributor to efforts to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals, especially environmental sustainability and combatting malaria and other disease. WCRP is partnering with DIVERSITAS and other global environmental change programmes to build on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.