French President Emmanuel Macron will award U.S. climate scientists with grants to conduct research in France for the remainder of President Trump’s current presidential term.
The “Make Our Planet Great Again” grants, totaling about $70 million, will be given to about 50 climate research projects, ABC News reported.
The Monday awards ceremony comes the day before the United Nations and World Bank’s “One Planet Summit,” a climate event focused on the Paris Accord. Trump was not invited to the summit, according to ABC.
Macron has been especially critical of Trump’s decision to pull out of the accord, saying in November that France would cover the U.S. share of funding for a U.N. climate change panel.{mosads}
The grants will allow researchers to relocate to France and will last through the remainder of Trump’s current term.
Macron announced the initiative after Trump said in June that he would pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement.
Macron invited U.S. researchers, and soon other non-French climate researchers, to compete for the opportunity to conduct their work at French institutions like La Sorbonne or Paris-Saclay.
“These are the places you have to come work in to develop new initiatives for our planet,” the “Make Our Planet Great Again” website reads.
Trump has called the Paris climate agreement “unfair” to U.S. interests and promised to pull the U.S. out of the accord during his presidential campaign. The U.S. became the only nation to not be signed onto the deal when Nicaragua and Syria both signed the pact.