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France's Macron announces first 'Make our Planet Great Again' winners

(CNN)In a rebuke to US antipathy towards climate science, France's leader has announced the first winners of grants for international scientists to carry out their research in France.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced the first 18 winners for his "Make our Planet Great Again" initiative, announced in June after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, the international, non-binding agreement to reduce carbon emissions.The grants will provide recipients with funding of up to $1.8 million over a three to five year period.  

The name of the initiative is a not-so subtle reference to Trump's campaign slogan and governing philosophy, which many see as isolationist and antithetical to international cooperation.Among the winners were some prominent American names, including Camille Parmesan, a Texan who studies the effect of climate change on ecosystems.

As a lead author of reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Parmesan was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded in 2007.  Parmesan called the French initiative "absolutely fabulous, and a very appropriate response to Trump pulling out of the Paris Accords," according to the journal Science. She will join a center for theoretical and experimental ecology in the southwestern French city of Moulis, according to the report.In a video posted on Twitter, the French President thanked those who had applied, and the winners for their commitment.

 "Thank you for your answer to this first call, your decision to move and come to Paris," he wrote in the post. "Here you have a hub to do more." Alongside Paris, the recipients of the grants will be relocating to cities across the country.
 

Last edited by Goose (12/12/2017 6:01 am)