Since 2010, the BNP Paribas Foundation has supported research into climate change and biodiversity erosion by supporting international research teams through its ‘Climate & Biodiversity Initiative’ philanthropy programme.
In 2022, the 5th edition of the call for projects was launched in Europe with the aim of selecting research projects for the 2023-2025 period.
With a budget of 6 million euros over three years, the BNP Paribas Foundation announces the 8 projects selected to better understand the environmental impact of climate change and biodiversity loss, particularly on human societies.
The 8 new research projects of the 2023-2025 edition are:
- Coast-Voc: The power coastal ecosystems have over the climate
- Deeplife: Animal forests that live under water
- Flo Char: From land to sea, the impact of global warming in the Arctic
- Fruit Rescue: How will fruit trees resist climate change?
- Future Fear: Climate change, prey, and predators in the African savannah
- Natural Forestore: Carbon capture and storage in Thailand’s tropical forests
- Phytoplankton: Will phytoplankton adapt to climate change?
- Refuge-Artic: Arctic: Studying one of the last seas where ice never melts
These projects were chosen following a selection process led by recognised experts in their field of research, including:
- Philippe Cury, Research Director, « Institut de Recherche pour le Développement » (IRD).
- Franck Courchamp, Research Director,«Centre National français de Recherche Scientifique» (CNRS) and at the Ecology Laboratory Systematics and Evolution (CNRS/Université Paris-Sud), 2014 laureate of the Climate & Biodiversity Initiative programme .
- Philippe Gillet, Geophysicist, geologist, and professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.
- Yunne Shin, Research Director, « Institut de Recherche pour le Développement » (IRD).
- Jean-Pascal Van Ypersele, Doctor in physical sciences, climatologist, professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, where he co directs the Master’s in Science and Environmental Management. Formerly Vice President of the IPCC until 2015.
« Today, environmental philanthropy accounts for less than 5% of global philanthropy, despite the scientific community’s ever more urgent need for support in environmental research projects . For this 5th edition of the Climate and Biodiversity Initiative, 49 research project proposals from 11 countries have been submitted to the BNP Paribas Foundation. Together with its scientific committee, the Foundation has selected 8 new projects, to which it will devote 6 million euros over the course of the next three years. With this initiative, we renew our commitment to the scientific community to better understand the interaction between climate change and biodiversity erosion. Through these research projects, we will continue to foster the various initiatives launched every year by the Foundation, to raise awareness, and familiarise the public, especially young people, with environmental issues. ». Isabelle Giordano, Head of Group Philanthropy and General Delegate of the BNP Paribas Foundation
By 2025, the Climate and Biodiversity initiative will have supported more than 500 scientists, including 35 international research projects worth 24 million euros. Since 2010, the BNP Paribas Foundation has made great strides in helping to raise the public’s awareness of environmental issues, through a series of public events attended by nearly 900k people.