The European Commission confirmed the third phase of Destination Earth (DestinE) on 1 February 2026.
DestinE is an initiative of the European Commission to build a highly accurate digital replica of the Earth system, enabling the exploration of past, present and likely future climate conditions and extreme events, including through tailored “what-if” scenarios. This helps European and national institutions better understand, prepare for, and adapt to climate- and weather-related risks.
The initiative is jointly implemented by ECMWF, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), under the leadership of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG Connect).
The core foundations
During its first two phases, ECMWF worked with more than 100 partner organisations across Europe, including national meteorological and hydrological services, to establish the core components of DestinE.
These include the Climate Change Adaptation Digital Twin, which creates an operational framework for producing global, high-resolution climate projections over multi-decadal timescales, and the Weather-Induced Extremes Digital Twin, which simulates extreme weather events and their impacts at high resolution both globally and across Europe. The Digital Twin Engine enables these systems to run on the supercomputing infrastructure of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and manages the production of and access to the high-resolution digital-twin data.
Substantial progress has also been made in artificial intelligence (AI) activities. This included the development of machine-learning components representing different parts of the Earth system, including land, ocean, sea ice, waves and hydrology. These developments contribute to an emerging AI Earth system model designed to complement physics-based simulations, support uncertainty analysis and enable rapid scenario testing. Prototype tools such as a “forecast-in-a-box” and a digital twin assistant have also been created to improve interaction with models and data.
Phase three: consolidation
In phase three, running from June 2026 to June 2028, ECMWF and its partners will focus on operating and further evolving the Climate and Extremes Digital Twins and the Digital Twin Engine. Work will also advance AI models developed in earlier phases and transform digital-twin data into high-quality datasets that can feed into Europe’s AI Factories.
By integrating physical understanding with innovative AI approaches, Europe’s weather and climate prediction capabilities will be further enhanced. These capabilities will support national meteorological and hydrological services and public authorities in preparing for extreme events in a changing climate.
The combination of high-resolution datasets and European AI infrastructure is also expected to enable new AI applications for weather and climate, supporting innovation across industry and the public sector while strengthening Europe’s position in trustworthy AI for environmental intelligence.
A collaborative European effort
DestinE brings together expertise in Earth system modelling, software engineering, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence, drawing on European and national investments across these fields. The initiative is fundamentally collaborative, pooling resources across Europe and Member States to complement existing national and European services and help institutions respond to climate change and extreme weather risks.
With phase three now confirmed, DestinE continues to strengthen Europe’s capacity for preparedness, resilience and innovation in the face of a changing climate.