France launches website to lure foreign brainpower on climate change

[PARIS] The French presidency launched on Thursday a website to lure international scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to France following US President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of a global climate change deal.

The website - makeourplanetgreatagain.fr - went live just a week after President Emmanuel Macron's speech that criticised Mr Trump's decision to leave the Paris agreement on climate change signed in December 2015.

The English-language website, which uses the phrase coined by Mr Macron that itself recycled Mr Trump's campaign slogan, allows teachers, businessmen and NGOs to find the relevant contact details to help them settle in France.

It also marks a more offensive approach by France to take advantage of a perceived isolationist policy in the United States and promote a more business-friendly and open outlook advocated by the 39-year-old president.

"The world is changing," an official at the President's office said.

"Attractiveness is relative. The US was attractive before, it may be less so tomorrow, and we may be more."

REUTERS