To provide a database with observed responses to climate change for multidisciplinary studies.

To provide an assessment of potential climate change impacts on world crop production.

To provide annual estimates of anthropogenic global and regional Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) emissions in support of climate, atmospheric or other related research.

To provide geographical portraits of vulnerability designed to incorporate both exposure to climate change and national capacities to adapt.

To provide estimates of urban and rural populations and land areas in the low elevation coastal zone.

To provide a baseline dataset for the evaluation of climate change impact.

To provide the projections of anthropogenic emissions of gases that have the potential to affect climate change.

To provide gridded emissions data that can be used in interdisciplinary studies of the environment.

To provide fluor-gases emissions data that can be used in interdisciplinary studies of the environment.

To provide new emissions scenarios for the IPCC Assessment Reports.

To provide search and retrieval of texts of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs)

To provide information on the status of country participation in international environmental agreements.

To make the acquisition, comparison and analysis of sustainability indicators easier by compiling them in a single database, incorporating multiple country codes, and condensing the indicator descriptions into short methodological summaries in an accompanying data dictionary.

To provide an assessment of potential climate change impacts on world crop production, including quantitative estimates of yield changes of major food.

To provide insights into the processes that can negatively influence the sustainable development of countries, with particular reference to vulnerability to natural hazards.

To provide quantitative metrics for evaluating a country's environmental performance in different policy categories relative to clearly defined targets.

To create a comparative index of national-level environmental sustainability and to provide a mechanism for making environmental management more quantitative, empirically grounded and systematic.

To provide tabular data on environmental conditions (elevations, climate, coastal) in which people reside.

To provide tabular data to researchers without GIS capabilities who need data on population and land area by country across a range of physical characteristics. These include measures such as the number of persons living within coastal zones, the percent of a region within specific elevation strata, or the number of persons living within different climate zones.

To provide a means of assessing the relative distribution and frequency of global drought hazard.