Work is set to begin within months on building “digital twins” of Earth to better predict the future of climate change, extreme weather and the environment. The Destination Earth project aims to create a crucial tool for everyone from politicians and city planners to energy companies and reinsurance firms to simulate in unprecedented detail how human and physical systems will change in a warming world.

Three digital twins are initially planned, which would be detailed simulacrums of reality built on satellite and field data …