1 February 2026: The European Commission confirmed that its flagship initiative Destination Earth (DestinE) will move into the third phase, starting in June 2026 and run until June 2028. 

DestinE is building digital twins of the Earth to better simulate and adapt to the risks caused by climate change. The three entrusted entities – the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organisation for the Explotation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) – under the leadership of the Directorate-General Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT) of the European Commission, will continue to implement DestinE in the next 24-month phase, working in close collaboration with many partners institutions across Europe.

In phase three which will run from June 2026 to June 2028, ECMWF and its partners will focus on operating and further evolving the Climate Change Adaptation Digital Twin and Weather-Induced Extremes Digital Twin, the Digital Twin Engine. They will also focus on advancing the AI models and solutions developed in Phase 2, and on transforming digital twin data into high-quality AI-ready datasets that can feed into Europe’s AI Factories.   

“Phase three allows us to consolidate the digital twins while taking the next major steps towards delivering an AI Earth-system model, building on the combined expertise of ECMWF, our Member States and partners”, said Florian Pappenberger, Director-General of ECMWF. 

“Destination Earth is, above all, a collaborative European effort. It brings together expertise in Earth system modelling, software engineering, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence. By pooling resources and working closely with our partners, we are building capabilities that complement existing national and European services and help European institutions and Member States prepare for the challenges posed by climate change and extreme events,”  said Irina Sandu, Director of Destination Earth at ECMWF.

Read more on the joint website of DestinE and on the ECMWF website.

Explore DestinE’s 2025 key highlights. 

Learn more about how DestinE’s information system operates, the role of Artificial Intelligence, and the latest developments around ML-based Earth system components (Hydrology, Wave, Land, Sea-Ice).