The European Commission has approved an investment package of €222 million from the EU budget to support Europe's transition to more sustainable and low-carbon future under the LIFE programme for the Environment and Climate Action.
The EU funding will mobilise additional investments leading to a total of €379 million going towards 139 new projects in 20 Member States.
€181.9 million will go to projects in the field of environment and resource efficiency, nature and biodiversity, and environmental governance and information. Project examples include creating bio-based products from wastewater sludge in the Netherlands and applying a new biological treatment to remove pesticides and nitrates from water in southern Spain.
The LIFE funding will also help improve the resilience of one of Europe's busiest waterways, the Scheldt Estuary in Belgium where climate change could have a huge environmental and socio-economic impact on the Scheldt estuary and its highly urbanised river banks.
12 LIFE Climate Change Adaptation projects will mobilise €42.6 million, of which the EU will provide €20.6 million. The action grants are awarded to projects in six thematic areas: ecosystem-based adaptation, health and wellbeing, mountain/island areas adaptation focusing on the agriculture sector, urban adaptation/planning, vulnerability assessments/adaptation strategies, and water (including flood management, coastal areas and desertification).
59 LIFE Environment & Resource Efficiency projects will mobilise €134.6 million, of which the EU will provide €73.0 million. The projects cover actions in five thematic areas: air, environment and health, resource efficiency, waste, and water.
The LIFE programme is the EU's funding instrument for the environment and climate action. It has been running since 1992 and has co-financed more than 4 500 projects across the EU and in third countries, mobilising over €9 billion and contributing over €4 billion to the protection of the environment and climate.
At any given moment some 1100 projects are ongoing. The budget for the LIFE Programme for 2014–2020 is set at €3.4 billion in current prices, and has a sub-programme for environment and a sub-programme for climate action.
Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete commented:
"The historic Paris Agreement on climate change has added wind to the sails of already accelerating climate-smart investments. With these projects, we use limited public finance in a catalytic way: we unlock private finance to protect the environment, fight climate change and provide cleaner energy to our citizens. These kinds of investments are of critical importance if we are to move from aspirations to action."
Click here for details of all the projects.