The textile industry continues to look to a LIFE-funded project for inspiration on cleaning up its environmental impact, after the project officially concluded in August this year. MIDWOR-LIFE carried out industrial-scale assessments in Spain, the Czech Republic and Italy on textile finishing products which enable fabrics to repel water or oil.

An estimated € 630 million is spent each year cleaning beaches and coastal areas across the EU. A workshop by the Clean Sea LIFE project at the European Parliament gave the fishing community and port authorities a platform to explain how marine litter affects them, and what solutions are possible.

A clear message emerged at the November LIFE ClimAgri workshop at the European Parliament: faced with climate change, current intensive farming practices are unsustainable.

Environmental and wildlife crimes are cross-border, global problems that need modern solutions. LIFE projects are using new technologies and digital platforms to help national authorities identify crimes and deter potential offenders.

The European Commission has approved an investment package of € 243 million from the EU budget for projects supporting nature, the environment and quality of life in Europe's transition to a more sustainable and low-carbon future. EU funding under the LIFE programme for the Environment and Climate Action will mobilise additional investments leading to a total of € 430.7 million going towards 142 new projects. With numerous trans-national projects funded, LIFE will have an impact in every EU Member State.

"Food waste is not only unethical; it is a shameful waste of natural and economic resources," said Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, at the recent LIFE platform meeting on food waste in Budapest. He added that it has no place in the EU, where 55 million people go without a quality meal every second day.

A host of LIFE projects are at the green technologies expo, ECOMONDO, next month. They will be showcasing their solutions reduce waste, noise, greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful environmental impacts.

The EU is committed to halving the amount of food waste per capita in Europe in line with UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030. Food savings are required across the chain, from reducing production losses to reducing the amount of food that is thrown away.

Energy-intensive industries are responsible for a large share of Europe's greenhouse gas emissions. This means they have a key role to play in implementing the EU's roadmap to decarbonisation.

Spanish researchers have created a plastic film that protects crops before biodegrading completely after harvest.

Environmentally-friendly farming practices such as lining fields with hedges and rotating crops are finding their way into mainstream agriculture.

Applicants have submitted 124 proposals for traditional LIFE projects under the Climate Action sub-programme in the 2018 funding round. The deadline for applications was Wednesday 12 September. Half (62) of the proposals are for Climate Change Mitigation projects, with 51 for Climate Change Adaptation projects and the remaining 11 for the Climate Governance and Information (GIC) strand.

  

Bees, beetles, snails and other invertebrates make up 80% of the animal kingdom. Without them – and their crucial services like pollination and pest control - our ecosystems would collapse. This means that conserving bugs is of vital importance to us all – or at least it should be.

For the first time, the European Commission has authorised the continued use of a substance considered of “very high concern” under the Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH).

The European Commission is loosening the legislation belt for several sectors and ensuring that the highest, uniformed safety standards exist throughout all Member States. One aspect of this is taking 28 separate, national laws – piling up to several hundred pages of legislation – and scrapping them for single, homogeneous EU regulations. Recently it was decided that Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), cableways installations and gas appliances will be subject to this business- and consumer-benefitting policy.