FairCarboN, Priority Research Program and Equipment (PEPR) which aims at carbon neutrality

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FairCarboN, Priority Research Program and Equipment (PEPR) which aims at carbon neutrality

Launched at the beginning of April, the FairCarboN priority research program and equipment (PEPR) ” Carbon in continental ecosystems: levers and trajectories for carbon neutrality”aims to develop the contribution of continental ecosystems to climate change mitigation and carbon neutrality. Co-directed by CNRS and INRAE, along with IRD, CIRAD, CEA, Aix-Marseille University, the University of Montpellier and the University of Paris-Saclay, it has a budget of 40 million euros over six years, financed under PIA 4. A first call for projects is open this month and five targeted projects will be launched between now and 2023, in order to strengthen inter-disciplinary, multi-milieu and multi-actor dialogues.

The exploratory PEPRs aim to “build or consolidate French leadership in scientific fields linked or likely to be linked to a technological, economic, societal, health, environmental transformation… and considered a priority at the national or European levels.”

The PEPR FairCarboN aims to better understand the carbon cycle to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, an international treaty on global warming adopted in 2015. To limit the rise in temperatures to below 2°C and, as long as possible, not exceed 1.5°, it is imperative to achieve zero net carbon dioxide emissions between 2050 and 2070. To achieve this, we must reduceCO2 emissions but also store carbon to compensate for incompressible emissions.

The role of terrestrial ecosystems

Terrestrial ecosystems contribute to both of these goals and it is important to preserve natural ecosystems, to ensure the sustainability of managed and semi-natural ecosystems.

Agricultural and forestry systems, in particular, play a key role in these objectives. A massive decrease in emissions requires a reduction in emissions from the agricultural sector and an increased use of biomass as a substitute for fossil fuels. In addition, storing carbon in soils and biomass would allow natural offsetting of incompressible emissions.

To maintain or increase the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to provide other ecosystem services, including biomass supply, water availability and quality, and biodiversity preservation, it is necessary first and foremost to understand the dynamics of carbon in terrestrial ecosystems, to measure stocks (quantities contained in reservoirs such as soils, plant cover, water, and the atmosphere) and fluxes (exchanges between these reservoirs), and to understand the interrelationships of the carbon cycle with other biogeochemical cycles, including that of water.

On the other hand, the reduction of the use of fossil resources, therefore non-renewable, will be based on the development of the use of renewable carbon resulting from the photosynthesis of plants in the various sectors related to agriculture, industry, food, health, etc. The bioeconomy and the circular economy are thus an integral part of FairCarboN, as they are essential to meet the climate challenge.

The FairCarboN program

The exploratory PEPR FairCarboN aims to assess the contribution of continental ecosystems (forests, agricultural systems, natural ecosystems, freshwater and coastal ecosystems, urban and peri-urban ecosystems) to climate change mitigation and to find the ecological, agronomic and socio-economic levers to achieve the transition to carbon neutrality Sylvie Recous (INRAE) and Pierre Barré (CNRS) co-direct and lead the program with the help of a team of 14 scientists covering the main thematic fields of PEPR.

FairCarboN will have direct, concrete and significant impacts on the following issues

  • Scientific: removal of knowledge barriers, increase in the skills of research infrastructures, creation of databases and a new generation of open and shared digital models, increase in international scientific publications, international recognition;
  • Environmental: solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon storage while preserving the sustainability of ecosystems;
  • Socio-economic: construction of trajectories towards carbon neutrality with the various stakeholders (agricultural and forestry players, industrialists, environmental agencies, civil society, NGOs, public policy makers, etc.) and support for territories in implementing these trajectories at the local, regional and national levels, implementation of indicators and decision support tools to help stakeholders contribute to the transition to carbon neutrality;
  • Policies: making the main results of the program available in the form of policy briefs and indicators, contributing to the development and evaluation of public policies.

On the other hand, five targeted projects, with a budget between 1.5 and 7 million euros, will also be launched by 2023 on actions that the team has identified.

FairCarboN’s five targeted projects

Five targeted projects, with a budget between 1.5 and 7 million euros, will also be initiated by 2023:

  • The first targeted project (7 M€) will create a database on the evolution of carbon stocks in soils and plant biomasses, to estimate carbon inputs and to gather data, notably climatic data, useful for models. Unique at the global level, this database will make it possible to test existing models (in France and elsewhere) and to optimize them in order to develop a new generation of more accurate models.
  • FP2 (€6.5M) will develop a multi-agent modeling platform to evaluate carbon dynamics on a territorial scale. It will be used to run “scenario labs” bringing together scientists and stakeholders in five pilot territories in mainland France, overseas territories and southern countries (in conjunction with the IRD and CIRAD) and to diagnose carbon flows.

The last three projects will provide support for infrastructure that France maintains around the world in a variety of climatic conditions, representing all continental ecosystems:

  • FP3 (€2.8 million) will allow for the densification of flow measurement networks, particularly in southern countries such as Africa, with the help of the French ecosystem already positioned in these territories.
  • FP4 (1.5 M€) will network trials of cropping systems, currently dispersed, in order to build a more complete database.
  • FP5 (2 M€) will focus on carbon flows in freshwater ecosystems and the land-sea continuum.

The FairCarboN call for projects

A call for projects, with a budget of 11 million euros funded by the ANR, was announced on April 11 during the launch of the PEPR. Open to the entire community, it aims to make significant progress on the understanding of key processes governing the carbon cycle (coupling with other cycles, plant production and recycling of biomass, lateral and longitudinal flows, storage and emissions, greenhouse gas balance, development and evaluation of public policies …).

It has two phases:

  • A first phase of letter of intent submission, until June 7: The
    The FairCarboN operational team, composed of the two directors and the scientific animators of the program, will evaluate these letters of intent and, for those selected, will propose, if necessary, grouping of proposals and/or addition of partners.
  • A second phase of submission of complete projects, until November 9, 2022, for the evaluation of the scientific project of the selected consortia, by an independent jury.

The amount of aid per project will be 1 M€ and 1.5 M€ over a period of 4 to 5 years.

Translated from FairCarboN, Programme et Equipement Prioritaire de Recherche exploratoire (PEPR) qui vise à la neutralité carbone