Environment Governance

Objective

To facilitate the transition toward a sustainable, circular, energy-efficient and climate-resilient economy, a toxic-free environment, and toward protecting, restoring and improving the quality of the environment in line with the European Green Deal and recent policy developments — specifically through governance, capacity-building and behavioural-change actions.

Sub-topics that can be funded

Proposals must address one or two of the following sub-topics (maximum two):

1. Activities in support of public administrations' decision-making and voluntary approaches for the public and the private sector
2. Environmental compliance assurance and access to justice
3. Behavioural change and awareness-raising initiatives
4. Enabling actions for the replication and upscaling of proven environmental solutions

The call rule: "a maximum of two sub-topics shall be selected … and only those will be considered in the evaluation" (Call document LIFE-2026-SAP-ENV, Section 2, p. 29).

What this means for cities and regions

The governance strand for environmental work — funds policy capacity inside city and regional administrations, citizen-engagement and behaviour-change campaigns, environmental compliance and access-to-justice work, and the replication of proven environmental solutions across territories. Useful entry point for cities updating their environmental, air-quality or noise plans, or running awareness initiatives. Per-project budgets are smaller — indicatively €0.7–2 million — and around 5–6 projects will be funded in the 2026 call.