FRANCE

ARCTIC COUNCIL: OBSERVER

France

NATIONAL ARCTIC STRATEGY

"Prospective Recherches Polaires" (2012), The National Center for Scientific Research (Government agency and not ministry. A government's Arctic strategy is expected this Falll.) 

CONTRIBUTION TO THE ARCTIC

The French Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor (IPEV) is a public interest group formed by nine public and para-statal bodies. IPEV is an agency of resources and expertise to support scientific research in the Arctic. IPEV is a partner of the French Arctic Initiative and was launched in 2013 and is a consortium of leading French research bodies and agencies. It runs 27 highly interdisciplinary programmes for research on key scientific issues in the Arctic. It also runs a national database of Arctic researchers. Together with the German Alfred Wegner Institute: Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), IPEV runs the AWIPEV Arctic Research base at Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard. An important research infrastructure enabling scientific initiatives is the privately run and publically supported Tara Expeditions, which operates the Tara, a sailing research vessel which operates in polar areas. It has been used in EU-funded projects, such as DAMOCLES.

OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS

- Represented on the European Polar Board: CNRS-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (National Centre for Scientific Research) and Institut Polaire Français Paul Emile Victor (French Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor).

-Member at Polarview (Istitut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER))

- France in cooperation with the European Space Agency and the The Swedish National Space Board, and specifically with Canada and Finland, operates the Odin satellite, which has an Arctic specific mission in its study of ozone depletion (Launched in 2001, the Odin was designed to combine two scientific disciplines on a single spacecraft in studies of star formation/early solar system (astronomy) and of the mechanisms behind the depletion of the ozone layer in the earths atmosphere and the effects of global warming (aeronomy).)

SELECTED EU-FINANCED PROJECTS

  • MeteoFrance is partner to to CoreClimax, a project for coordination the identification of essential climate change variables and the creation of long term climate data records. CoreClimax is partially financed by the EU by the 7th Framework Programme.
  • University Pierre et Marie Curie and LOCEAN are lead partners to ACCESS (Arctic Climate Change, Economy and Society /Climate Change and the Arctic environment WG), a project aimed at evaluating the Arctic climate change scenarios and their impact on specific economic sectors and human activities over the next decades. The project is fully financed buy the EU by the 7th Framework Programme and Ocean of Tomorrow. LATMOS, Association Le cercle polaire, and LOV are also partners to ACCESS.
  • Université de Pierre et Marie Curie is partner to Arctic Tipping Points, a project aimed at Identifying the elements of the Arctic marine ecosystem likely to show abrupt changes in response to climate change, and establish the levels of the corresponding climate drivers inducing regime shift in those tipping elements. In addition, determine the effect of crossing those thresholds for the Arctic marine ecosystems, and the associated risks and opportunities for economic activities dependent on the marine ecosystem of the European Arctic. Arctic Tipping Points is partially financed by the EU by the 7th Framework Programme. Université de Pierre et Marie Curie is also leading DAMOCLES (Developing Arctic Modelling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term Environmental Studies ). The project was an integrated ice-­‐atmosphere-­‐ocean monitoring and forecasting system designed for observing, understanding and quantifying climate changes in the Arctic. DAMOCLES is partially financed by the EU by the 6th Framework Programme.
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique is lead partner EPOCA (European Project on Ocean Acidification) a project for advancing the understanding of the biological, ecological, biogeochemical, and societal implications of ocean acidification. EPOCA is partially financed by the EU by the 7th Framework Programme. PHILIPPE SAUGIER INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS and the COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES are also partners to EPOCA.
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Institut Francais de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer are partners to MONARCH-A (MONitoring and Assessing Regional Climate change in High latitudes and the Arctic), a project aimed at generating a dedicated information package tailored to a subset of multidisciplinary Essential Climate Variables and their mutual forcing and feedback mechanisms associated with changes in terrestrial carbon and water fluxes, sea level and ocean circulation and the marine carbon cycle. MONARCH-A is partially financed by the EU by the 7th Framework Programme.
  • Université Joseph Fourier and the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies alternatives are partners to Page21, a project aimed at understanding and quantifying the vulnerability of permafrost environments to a changing global climate, and to investigate the feedback mechanisms associated with increasing greenhouse gas emissions from permafrost zones. Page21 is partially financed by the EU. The Technische Universität Wien, (Austria) is also partner to MARIES, a project for the Development of Methodologies for satellite monitoring of Arctic glaciers, sea ice and icebergs. MARIES is fully financed by the EU, Copernicus, 7th Framework Programme.
  • The French Polar Research Institute is partner to SIOS, (Svalbard Integrated Earth Observing System) a project for the Creation Of an optimized observational infrastructure which can match advanced Earth System Models with observational evidence and provide near--‐real--‐time information on Arctic Change to relevant stakeholders. SIOS is partially financed by the EU by the 7th Framework Programme.
  • STX France SA, BUREAU VERITAS, NEXANS and SAFT S.A. are partners JOULES (Joint Operation for Ultra Low Emission Shipping), a project aimed at significantly reducing the gas emissions of European Built ships. JOULES is partially financed by the EU by the 7th Framework Programme
  • MER and CEDRE are partners to NETMAR (Open service network for Marine Environmental Data), a project that aims at developing a pilot European Marine Information System (EUMIS) for searching, downloading and integrating satellite, in situ and model data from ocean and coastal areas. NETMAR is partially financed by the EU by the 7th Framework Programme.
  • THALES ALENIA SPACE is partner to MarCoast/MarCoast 2 (Marine & Coastal Environmental Information Service), a project which delivers downstream services for the operational monitoring of marine water quality. MarCoast/MarCoast 2 is fully financed by the EU through the European space agency ESA-­‐ESRIN.
  • Collecte Localisation Satellites SA (CLS) is partner to SIDARUS (Sea Ice Downstream Services for Arctic and Antarctic Users and Stakeholders), a project for the development and implementation of a set of sea ice downstream services in the area of climate research, marine safety and environmental monitoring. SIDARUS is partially financed by the EU through the European Earth Observation Programme Copernicus, 7th Framework Programme.
 

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