Climate Initiative: 2nd call for projects to promote research on climate change
As part of its Climate Initiative programme, the BNP Paribas Foundation, in close collaboration with the BNP Paribas Delegation for Social and Environmental Responsibility, has launched a new call for projects to support climate change research.
With a budget of 3 million euros over 3 years, the Climate Initiative Programme will support three or four scientific research projects that will contribute to better understanding the impact of climate change on our environment, as well as on the social and economic development of communities around the world.
Anyone proposing a potential project can complete an online application between 16 September 2013 and 1 November 2013.
About the Climate Initiative
The Climate Initiative programme was launched three years ago, with an initial call for projects, and since then has won a high level of recognition in the scientific community due first to its unique focus on basic research in the climate field, and second to the breadth and scientific rigor of the selection process, which is conducted by outside figures who are well known in their field of research.
An international scientific committee
Led by Philippe Gillet, Vice President of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale of Lausanne, this committee is composed of leading researchers: Joanna Haigh (Imperial College, London), Jean-Pascal Van Ypersele (Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics of the Catholic University of Louvain), Thomas Stocker (Institute of Physics of the University of Bern) and Riccardo Valentini (University of Tuscia, Viterbo).
The five projects that the Climate Initiative has supported up to now:
AAA: Access to the climate Archives despite Asbestos
Météo France and France’s National Archives have forged a unique partnership in order to ensure access to the 2 kilometers of archives on climate history stored in the Fontainebleau site. This valuable data is being scanned and indexed so that the scientific community around the world can use it. This should help to advance climate research and, in particular, to better understand its impact on human activities.
Global Carbon Atlas
The Global Carbon Project is a platform that allows scientists from around the world to share information on carbon flows so as to facilitate the international debate on how to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. With this new Atlas, the organization is to make available all the information collected on these flows so as to display the emitters and major reservoirs of greenhouse gases for all the world’s regions.
eFOCE
Every day the oceans absorb a quarter of all CO2 emissions. By dissolving in the seawater, CO2 changes its chemistry, and in particular makes it more acidic. This phenomenon may have important consequences for the marine ecosystem. To check on this, the eFOCE project team of the Oceanographic Laboratory at Villefranche is carrying out a series of long-term experiments in the natural environment.
Preclide
We now know from numerous studies that greenhouse gas emissions released by human activities are the main cause of variations in the climate. We also know that some of this variation is due to natural phenomena, such as ocean oscillations and solar activity.
But little is known about the role of these natural phenomena, and it is therefore difficult to predict how the climate will change. This is a question that the Cerfacs team will seek to answer with the Préclide project.
Subglacior
By studying ice cores extracted from the Antarctic, it is possible to determine the composition of the air in the distant past and thus to obtain valuable data on changes in the climate. To help recover the data from the oldest ice, the team of the Laboratory of Glaciology and Geophysics of the Environment is developing a new type of sensor that is expected to help reduce the drilling time in particular.
About the BNP Paribas Foundation
The BNP Paribas Foundation falls under the aegis of the Fondation de France and is committed to preserving and increasing understanding of treasures held in museums, encouraging creative artists and interpreters in disciplines that are often ignored by corporate philanthropy, and financing research programmes in such cutting-edge fields as medical and environmental research. It also sponsors projects to support education, social integration and disability. http://www.bnpparibas.com/nous-connaitre/mecenat
About the BNP Paribas policy on Social and Environmental Responsibility
For BNP Paribas, being a responsible bank means above all ensuring that the economy is financed in an ethical manner, while supporting individual and corporate clients in carrying out their projects. But beyond economic responsibilities related to the world of business, the Group also has responsibilities in three other areas:
- A social responsibility, through the responsible and fair use of human resources.
- A civic responsibility centered on the fight against social exclusion, as well as the development of education and culture in the areas in which the Group operates.
- An environmental responsibility, which involves reducing the environmental impact arising both from its own operations and from its financing and investment activities, as part of the fight against climate change.
For more information: www.bnpparibas.com/banque-responsable/rse.
