This minisymposium will feature the use of the differentiable programming paradigm applied to Earth System Models (ESMs). The goal is to exploit derivative information and seamlessly combine PDE-constrained optimization and scientific machine learning (SciML). Speakers will address (1) Why differentiable programming for ESMs; (2) What ESM applications are we targeting?; and (3) How are we realizing differentiable ESMs? Target ESMs include ice sheet, ocean, and solid Earth models.