LIFE programme: Around €380 million for Green Deal projects

A few days after the COP27 climate conference and two weeks before the start of the COP15 biodiversity conference, the Commission is granting further funding for its European Green Deal priorities. It has approved more than €380 million for 168 new projects across Europe under the LIFE programme for environment and climate policy. This represents an increase in funding of a good quarter (27 percent) compared to last year. They are expected to mobilise more than 562 million euros in investments.

Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, responsible for the European Green Deal, said: "By now we all know that the impacts of climate change such as extreme heat, droughts and floods are severely damaging our natural ecosystems. At COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, the EU made it clear on every stage that we need to translate ambition into action to tackle these impacts and accelerate decarbonisation. This is where LIFE projects can come in. Like their predecessors, the new LIFE projects will have a tangible impact on the ground, bringing many of the values of the Green Deal to bear and helping the EU tackle the climate crisis."

Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius added: "The crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution must be tackled together. At the UN Biodiversity Summit (COP15) in December, all countries must agree on an ambitious deal to halt and reverse the destruction of nature. In Europe, we have already started this work, and today we are putting words into action. The policies we agree will be translated into solutions on the ground through LIFE projects, leading to profound social and economic change."

The projects cover four sub-programmes:

• Nature and Biodiversity,
• Circular Economy and Quality of Life,
• Climate Protection and Adaptation to Climate Change, and
• Energy transition

LIFE projects can contribute to making the EU climate neutral by 2050. They support the 2030 Biodiversity Strategy and the Circular Economy Action Plan while contributing to the energy transition across Europe.

More information can be found here.

Source: European Commission