Geared towards enabling decision-makers in the public and private sectors to better assess environmental and economic risks, and the associated costs and benefits of potential courses of action, the program's 2021 Global Change Outlook report, prepared ahead of COP26, provides its latest periodic update on the direction our planet is heading in terms of economic development and its implications for sustainable resource use and the environment under different policy scenarios.

To obtain this integrated look at food, water, energy, and climate, as well as the oceans, atmosphere and land that comprise the Earth system, program researchers use the MIT Integrated Global System Modeling (IGSM) framework, a linked set of computer models developed by the MIT Joint Program to analyze interactions among human and Earth systems. The models, and the expansive data sets they use and generate, are run and housed on MIT computers located at the MGHPCC.