General objective

To develop and use a three-dimensionnal model of the Earth system in order to:

• advance our understanding of the interactions in the climate system;
• improve climate predictions at the century timescale and beyond;
• explore the threat of possible rapid climate and sea-level changes during the third milennium.

• To make as much projections as possible of climate and sea-level changes over both the twenty-first century and third millennium using the most advanced scenarios for changes in anthropogenic forcing.
• To thoroughly analyse the changes in mean climate and climate variability generated by the model, with a particular focus on the North Atlantic, European, and polar regions.
• To quantify the influence of vegetation, carbon-cycle, and ice-sheet dynamics on the projections of climate and sea-level changes.
• To explore the thresholds for abrupt climate change in the third millennium and to identify the processes and feedbacks within the model that could lead to such an abrupt climate change.
• To critically assess the model results, in particular with respect to the likelihood of future abrupt climate change.