Climate change will affect cotton through rising atmospheric CO2 levels, higher temperatures, lower humidity (high Vapour Pressure Deficit (VPD)) and reduced water availability. Fortunately predictions for climate change effects are similar to some of the extremes in climate experienced within and across cotton regions; therefore, opportunities exist to harness current understanding of cotton system adaptation to climate variability to plan for projected climate change. Although some research had previously been conducted on the main effects of rising CO2 and temperature, VPD, and reduced water, there had been virtually no research that had addressed the real-world interaction of rising CO2, temperature, VPD and reduced water. Research supported by CRDC (PhD project of researcher: the integrated effects of projected climate change on cotton growth and physiology) has shown that while some aspects of cotton growth are improved by elevated CO2, there are issues emerging on the availability and use of water to generate this growth. In the glasshouse, cotton has shown improved early growth rates in elevated CO2, which was the result of improvements in both leaf-level photosynthesis and water use efficiency (WUE). However, early cotton growth in elevated CO2, especially at elevated temperatures, increased total plant water use despite improvement in WUE. In water-limited situations, this suggests that more water may be invested in early vegetative growth (leaves and stems) and therefore, less water may be available for later reproductive growth (bolls and lint). Further research is needed (including field studies) under a wider range of future climatic conditions to validate these initial outcomes, extend them through the full growth cycle, and to begin to explore management options for adaptation. Therefore, the development of the National Facility for Cotton Climate Change Research (CSP1402) and the cotton production in a future climate sister project (CSP1501) have been crucial aspects of investigating the response and adaptation of field-grown cotton in Australian production systems to projected climate change.