On 7 November, the Commission granted over EUR 358 million to 132 new projects across Europe under the LIFE Programme for environment and climate action. This covers more than half of the total investment needs for these projects, with the remainder coming from national, regional and local governments, public-private partnerships, businesses and civil society organisations.

LIFE projects play a significant role in the EU's transition to a clean, circular and resilient economy, helping safeguard and restore the EU's biodiversity, supporting industrial competitiveness and contributing to the EU's long-term goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2050. The projects will cover all areas of the LIFE programme, including the circular economy.

Projects selected to promote a more circular economy include:

• LIFE Woodmer: a Swedish project which will produce biopolymers from waste wood to reduce hazardous chemicals and plastics in packaging and textiles.
• LIFE4EPR – towards harmonized Extended Producer Responsibility schemes across the EU: this Spanish project aims to support policymaking by providing a clearer understanding of the state of  play of Extended Producer Responsibility schemes across the EU. The ultimate goal is to enhance their effectiveness, cost-efficiency, governance and enforcement, and the overall waste management of the products concerned.
• Combining construction waste with carbon capture to create low carbon cement (CEMLOOP XL): this Belgian project aims to demonstrate how construction waste can be recycled into a raw material for cement production at industrial scale.
• Turning food related waste into animal feed (LIFE-INOFEED): this Greek project will create animal feed from waste fruit, vegetables, pasta, rice, bread and olive residues with an automated process that uses solar energy to dry the material and power the process.
• Sustainable transformation of waste to biomethane (LIFE-W2B): another Greek project, which will build a pilot facility to convert organic waste into high added value biomethane through microbial digestion and gasification.

You can read all the project summaries here!

These 132 projects were selected from more than 895 applications submitted under the LIFE 2024 call for proposals.