The Department coordinates the scientific and technological research carried out in the network of CNR Institutes, with the aim of broadening knowledge of planet Earth, considered as a complex system whose closely interconnected components are at risk of possible irreversible state jumps due to growing anthropogenic impacts on the climate and cryosphere, biodiversity, biogeochemical cycles, land use and the hydrological cycle. It is necessary not only to know more and more about how the earth system works, in all its ways, even in the deep geological past, but also to understand the impacts of mankind and an economy geared towards maximising growth and resource exploitation.
The research activities carried out by the Department's Institutes are equally placed in the Earth and Environmental Sciences, encompassing the study of geology, atmosphere, ice, ocean and terrestrial aquatic systems. 
The aim of the Department is to increase knowledge, help define solutions to global environmental challenges and provide policy makers with the information they need to understand and solve environmental problems, both natural and, above all, man-made. All this by contributing to the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).