European Commission announced an investment of more than 110 million euro in integrated projects of the LIFE program for environmental and climate protection, selected following a call for proposals in 2020, according to a statement from the Community Executive.
This funding will support major new environmental and climate projects in 11 EU countries – Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia. The projects contribute to a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and support the achievement of the objectives set out in the European Green Deal to make the EU climate neutral and reduce pollution to zero by 2050. These are examples of actions that will meet the main objectives set out in the European Green Deal under the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the EU Circular Economy Action Plan.
Integrated projects allow Member States to pool additional sources of EU funding, such as agricultural, structural, regional and research funds, as well as national funds and private sector investment. Overall, the 11 projects are expected to attract more than 10 billion euro in additional funding, significantly increasing the resources currently allocated to bring about real change on the ground, according to Agerpres.
A project in France will introduce measures to halt the decline of biodiversity and reverse this trend in the Grand Est region, for example by creating three pilot forest areas. Another project will mitigate the negative effects of human activities that threaten Finland’s marine and coastal biodiversity by monitoring and improving the management of the national network of marine protected areas. These projects will contribute to the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.
A Polish project will implement measures to improve overall air quality in the Silesian region – the region with the highest levels of air pollution in Europe – by replacing small-scale heating installations with solid fuels with less polluting alternatives. This project contributes to meeting the EU’s 2030 targets for greenhouse gas emissions and the Zero Pollution Action Plan.
Romania is not on the list of beneficiary countries.