European commission

Created in 1992, the European LIFE Programme is the European Union’s funding instrument for the Environment and Climate Actions. Thanks to this programme, more than 5 500 projects have taken shape throughout the whole Europe and the third countries. All of this with 9 billions euros. For the period 2014-2020, the budget was about 3,4 billions euros. For the next period 2021-2027, the European Commission would like to increase fundings by nearly 60%.

The LIFE programme (French: L’Instrument Financier pour l’Environnement) is the European Union’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action. The general objective of LIFE is to contribute to the implementation, updating and development of EU environmental and climate policy and legislation by co-financing projects with European added value.

The LIFE programme knew several funding periods :

• LIFE I (1992 – 1995) was the start of the programme by supporting 731 projects
• LIFE II (1996 – 1999) was divided into three categories (LIFE Nature, LIFE Environment and LIFE Third countries)
• LIFE III (2000 – 2004 and the extension to the end of 2006) knew an increased budget of 640 billion euros and introduced new accompanying measures
• LIFE+ (2007- 2013) ran for seven years with an increased budget of 2. 143 billion euros and was split into 3 categories (LIFE+ Nature and Biodiversity, LIFE+ Environment Policy and Governance and LIFE+ Information and Communication)
• LIFE 2014-2020 had a budget of 3.4 billion euros and was divided into two sub-programmes, one for environment and one for climate action
• LIFE 2021-2027 has an increased budget of 5.4 billion euros and cover 4 areas : Nature and biodiversity, Circular economy and quality of life, Climate change mitigation and adaptation and Clean energy transition.