Macron makes climate jibe against America

EMMANUEL MACRON yesterday awarded a string of American and other climate scientists multi-million-euro grants to work in France in a bid to counter Donald Trump’s rejection of the Paris climate accord.

The French leader announced the “Make Our Planet Great Again” initiative – whose title is a play on Mr Trump’s “Make America Great Again” election campaign slogan – hours after the US president announced in June that he would withdraw from the 2015 deal. More than 5,000 people from around 100 countries expressed interest in the grants, the French government said, with the majority coming from the United States.

Their research focuses on pollution, hurricanes and clouds. Announcing the first 18 winners, including 13 Americans, Mr Macron said: “France and Europe will be the place where we will decide how to make our planet great again.”

The unveiling of the grant winners came as 50 world leaders, including Theresa May, are due to convene in Paris today for a “One Planet Summit” co-hosted by the UN and the World Bank. Mr Trump was not invited.

They are meeting two years to the day since 195 nations adopted the Paris Agreement to limit climate change.