In its Annual Activity report for 2023, which was published on Monday 1 July, the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) boasts a record commitment of €10.6 billion in 2023 to new projects relating to the ‘European Green Deal’.
The CINEA agency lists more than 1,400 projects under its LIFE programme for the environment and climate action, details of which can be found in their public dashboard. The aim of these projects is to promote the circular economy, protect the environment and halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
Several projects have won LIFE 2023 awards, including the Luchs Pfälzerwald project, which won the Nature Prize for reintroducing Eurasian lynxes to south-west Germany three centuries after they had disappeared from the region. The Plants for Plants project won the environment prize for its plant-based biostimulants, which save water and make crops more resistant to climate change.
The CINEA agency is also pleased to have seen the size of the ‘Innovation Fund’ portfolio double in 2023 compared to 2022, with the publication of the first auction call for renewable hydrogen, with a budget of €800 million. The aim of the auction was to boost the European hydrogen market. It took place in April 2024, enabling seven projects to be financed, for a total amount of €720 million. The projects originated in the Iberian Peninsula and the Nordic countries (see EUROPE 13416/8).
The ‘Connecting Europe Facility’ (see EUROPE 11947/3) is one of the other success stories highlighted by CINEA, which states that with €5.3 billion of the EU contribution paid in 2023, the CEF portfolio contributed to “building a sustainable transport and energy infrastructure in Europe”. Among newly awarded projects, the agency mentions the construction of 12,000 charging points and 18 hydrogen refuelling stations, as well as the construction of the first high voltage underwater electricity interconnection between Sicily and Tunisia.
An initial public sector loan facility agreement has been signed with Western Macedonia in Greece, to encourage it to stop mining lignite. Finally, the Green Assist initiative, which aims to support potential beneficiaries of these programmes with technical advisory services, became “fully operational in 2023”. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)