IGBP mission is to deliver scientific knowledge to help human societies develop in harmony with Earth’s environment.

IGBP is a scientific research programme built around a family of core projects. Each core project carries out integrative research in a focused area of Earth System Science.

Its scientific objective is to describe and understand the interactive physical, chemical and biological processes that regulate the total Earth System, the unique environment that it provides for life, the changes that are occurring in this system, and the manner in which they are influenced by human actions.

As one of four international global environmental change research programmes, IGBP works towards its objective in close collaboration with the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), and DIVERSITAS, an international programme of biodiversity science. The International Council for Science (ICSU) is the common scientific sponsor of the four international global environmental change programmes.