LIFE Awards 2025 set to celebrate wins for Europe’s nature, climate and quality of life

The winners of the LIFE Awards 2025 — taking place on 3 June as part of EU Green Week, the most important environmental event in Europe — will be chosen for their outstanding achievements in three categories: Nature Protection and Biodiversity, Circular Economy and Quality of Life, and Climate Action. Together, they represent some of the most creative and impactful initiatives helping to create a greener Europe. The winners of the LIFE Citizens’ Prize and a Rising Star Recognition will also be announced. 

The finalists in the LIFE Award for Nature Protection and Biodiversity category are LIFE Lynx, a project to reverse the decline of the Alpine Lynx in Slovenia and Croatia; LIFEraisedbogs, which successfully restored over 900 ha of degraded raised peat bogs in Denmark; and LIFE Living Natura 2000, which ran a popular campaign to promote Natura 2000 network in German Bavaria, reaching over 25 million people. 

The winner of the LIFE Award for Circular Economy and Quality of Life will be chosen from among  3 finalists, including LIFE EMERALD, a project to create Ireland’s first air quality forecasting system; LIFE POPWAT, which introduced a new nature-based technology to remove hazardous man-made chemicals from contaminated water in Czechia and Poland; and LIFE LANDSCAPE FIRE, which aimed to reduce the risk of large-scale forest fires in Portugal and Spain. 

Three short-listed LIFE projects are vying for the LIFE Award for Climate Action: LIFE DESERT-ADAPT, which tackled desertification by improving soil and water in Italy, Spain and Portugal; NATURAL HVACR 4 LIFE, a Belgian project which developed natural air-conditioning systems to replace climate-damaging fluorinated greenhouse gases; and LIFE Natur’Adapt, a project to train nature reserve managers across France to deal with climate change. 

The LIFE Citizens’ Prize will be chosen by public vote from the nine finalists, while the Rising Star Recognition will celebrate a LIFE project making a remarkable contribution to the circular economy. The vote is open until 3 June. 

The LIFE Awards 2025 are judged by a jury of experts including Konstantinos Bakoyannis, Municipal Councillor of Athens, Chair of the Commission for the Environment, Climate change and Energy (ENVE) of the European Committee of the Regions; Sara Segantin, a writer, journalist, science storyteller and EU Climate Pact Ambassador and Hans Bruyninckx, Professor of Environmental Governance at the University of Antwerp, former European Environment Agency (EEA) Director, and Member of the International Resource Panel. 

Full list of LIFE Awards 2025 finalists  

Nature Protection  

LIFE Lynx: bringing together conservationists, hunters and local communities to successfully reverse the decline of the Alpine Lynx in Slovenia and Croatia. 

LIFEraisedbogs: restoring over 900 ha of damaged raised peat bogs across 10 different sites in Denmark. 

LIFE living Natura 2000: campaigning for understanding, acceptance and appreciation of the Natura 2000 network. 

Circular Economy and Quality of Life 

LIFE EMERALD: reducing air pollution and improving citizens’ health in Ireland. 

LIFE POPWAT: piloting new technology to remove hazardous man-made chemicals from contaminated water in two EU Member States. 

LIFE LANDSCAPE FIRE: combining traditional and modern fire prevention techniques to reduce large-scale forest fires in Portugal and Spain. 

Climate Action  

LIFE DESERT-ADAPT: tackling desertification by improving soil health, enhancing water retention, and building ecosystem resilience in Italy, Spain and Portugal.  

NATURAL HVACR 4 LIFE: developing viable natural air-conditioning systems to replace climate-damaging F-gases (fluorinated greenhouse gases) in Belgium, Germany, France and Czechia.  

LIFE Natur’Adapt: promoting climate change adaptation tools among 1 300 managers at 21 natural protected sites across France. 

About the LIFE Programme  

The LIFE Programme is the EU's funding instrument for the environment and climate action. It has been bringing green ideas to life since 1992 and, to date, has co-financed over 6,000 projects across the EU and in third countries. For the 2021-2027 period, the European Commission has increased LIFE Programme funding by almost 60%, up to €5.4 billion, and included the clean energy transition sub-programme.  

The recently-announced work programme for the implementation of the LIFE Programme in 2025-2027 established an overall budget of €2.3 billion for projects tackling circular economy, zero pollution, nature and biodiversity, climate mitigation and adaptation, and clean energy. The LIFE Programme is managed by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). 

For further details about the LIFE Awards 2025, please visit the following link or contact CINEA-communication-lifeec [dot] europa [dot] eu (CINEA-communication-life[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)