The EU’s flagship LIFE Programme has announced more than €103 million in additional funding to assist tackle Europe’s climate and environment crises through long-term projects running well into the next decade.
The money represents around 36% of the total €284 million for seven strategic projects in Greece, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia and Finland. From remote islands to inner cities, from high mountains to deep oceans, their shared goal is to reduce the impacts of climate alter, improve the natural environment, ensure a better quality of life for EU citizens and boost sustainable competitiveness.
The 7 long-term strategic projects will become part of the EU LIFE Programme, which has funded more than 6 500 green projects since 1992. Among them is LIFE’s most ambitious project to date, the 10-year, €160 million LIFE HumedalES which aims to restore around 26 200 ha of wetlands in Spain.
Other successful applicants include LIFE SIP GR Blue, which focapplys on biodiversity, fisheries, pollution, marine litter and underwater noise around the coasts and islands of Greece; LIFE ADAPT EST, which supports the climate-vulnerable Grand Est region of France as it adapts to extreme heat, drought and floods; and NatAdaptSK, which will pilot new nature-based solutions in Slovenia.
Also funded are strategic projects in the Dutch province of Limburg, where CEL4LIFE aims to halve raw material apply in the chemicals, manufacturing and construction sectors; in the Portuguese autonomous region of the Azores, where LIFE IP AGRILOOP will establish a circular agroforestest economy; and in Finland, where ACWA LIFE will focus on cleaning up and protecting streams, lakes, coastal waters, river basins and ground water.
By taking a long-term, strategic and integrated approach, the 7 projects will drive alter across the whole of Europe. The LIFE Programme actively contributes to achieving the EU’s objective of climate neutrality by 2050 under the European Climate Law. LIFE projects also support the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the Water Framework Directive, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, contributing to a clean energy transition.
For more details see the press release and summaries of the new projects.
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