Towards an effective implementation of key legislation in the field of sustainable energy

Expected Impact:Proposals should result in:

• Increased understanding and knowledge in public administrations in charge of implementing European energy legislation; improved collaboration of implementing bodies within and across Member States.
• More effective implementation of provisions, including better planning, design and evaluation of policy measures; more consistent implementation of legal provisions across energy legislation, energy policy and energy sectors.
• Use of appropriate tools and methods that facilitate availability and access to data; improved quality of data and better monitoring; use of more accurate calculation and Measurement & Verification (M&V) methodologies; improved quality of reporting; improved understanding and measurement of the impacts.
• Improved understanding of potentials and market barriers.

Proposals should present the concrete results which will be delivered by the activities and demonstrate how these results will contribute to the topic-specific impacts. This demonstration should include a detailed analysis of the starting point and a set of well-substantiated assumptions and establish clear causality links between the results and the expected impact.

Proposals should quantify their results and impacts using the two sets of indicators provided for the topic (below), when they are relevant for the proposed activities. They should also propose indicators which are specific to the proposed activities. Proposals are not expected to address all the listed impacts and indicators. The results and impacts should be quantified for the end of the project and for 5 years after the end of the project.

The indicators for this topic include:

• Number of public authorities with increased capacity and better access to information and data.
• Number of public authorities and stakeholders using tools, resources, information and data established and provided by the activity.
• Number of policy measures, implementing acts and related documents improved by the activity.
• Number of monitoring and reporting tools and documents improved by the activity.
• Number of references in policy-relevant documents, such as impact assessments, guidance documents etc.

Proposals should also quantify their impacts related to the following common indicators for the LIFE Clean Energy Transition sub-programme:

• Primary energy savings triggered by the project in GWh/year.
• Final energy savings triggered by the project in GWh/year.
• Renewable energy generation triggered by the project (in GWh/year).
• Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (in tCO2-eq/year).
• Investments in sustainable energy (energy efficiency and renewable energy) triggered by the project (cumulative, in million Euro).

Funding rate

Other Action Grants (OAGs) — 95%

Objective:Under the European Green Deal and the REPowerEU Plan, the EU has put in place a whole set of new pieces of climate and energy legislation, including the revised Energy Efficiency Directive, Renewable Energy Directive and Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. The revisions make the policy framework for sustainable energy more stringent and ambitious. While the legislative framework offers a good amount of flexibility to Member States to shape the policy measures according to their needs and framework conditions, accurate design, monitoring, projecting and evaluation are essential elements of implementation.

This topic aims to support the implementation of the main pieces of legislation in the field of sustainable energy, notably of the Energy Efficiency Directive (Scope A), the Renewable Energy Directive (Scope B) and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (Scope C).

This topic under the LIFE-2025-CET call for proposals exclusively aims at addressing the Renewable Energy Directive (Scope B). Applicants are invited to submit proposals for actions to support national public authorities and - where applicable - regional authorities in charge of the implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED)[1]. Scopes A and C under this topic are not open in call LIFE-2025-CET.

Note that actions supporting the implementation of specific provisions of the Energy Efficiency Directive and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive are partly addressed in other vertical topics.

Scope:Actions under this topic are expected to:

• Promote and enable exchange of insights and sharing of best practices within/ across Member States.
• Provide support, technical advice and tools for contextualisation and specification of requirements, in general and according to the national and regional context.
• Scope, assess and model the impact of implementation options to comply with EU legislative requirements, thereby contributing to the design of more effective policies.
• Support the monitoring and evaluation of policy implementation.
• Develop and apply methodologies to more accurately measure, calculate and account for contributions made under the specific policy measures and programmes.

Actions under call 2025 are expected to support the implementation of specific provisions related to the streamlining of permit-granting process, renewables acceleration areas, information and training of installers and designers of selected renewable energy technologies.

Scope B: Support for the implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive

Lengthy administrative permit-granting procedures are one of the key barriers to investment in renewable energy projects and their related infrastructure. Directive (EU) 2018/2001 addressed this barrier by introducing rules on the organisation and maximum duration of the administrative part of the permit-granting procedure for renewable energy projects.

To support the faster deployment of renewable energy projects, Directive (EU) 2023/2413 has introduced a requirement for Member States to carry out a coordinated mapping for the deployment of renewable energy and related infrastructure in their territory. Member States should also designate as a sub-set of those areas, the renewables acceleration areas, specifically for one or more types of renewable energy plants and should indicate the type or types of energy from renewable sources that are suitable to be produced in such areas. A distinction is therefore introduced between projects located in renewables acceleration areas, for which deadlines and permitting can be further streamlined, and projects located outside such areas.

Following the adoption of the plans designating renewables acceleration areas, Member States should monitor any significant adverse environmental effects of the implementation of plans and programmes in order, inter alia, to identify, at an early stage, unforeseen adverse effects and to be able to undertake appropriate remedial action.

Another significant barrier slowing down the growth of renewables is the shortage of skilled professionals in some markets. In this context, the Renewable Energy Directive requires Member States to ensure that certification schemes or equivalent qualification schemes are available for installers and designers of all forms of renewable heating and cooling systems in buildings, industry and agriculture, for installers of solar photovoltaic systems, including energy storage, and for installers of recharging points enabling demand response. Those schemes need to be based on the criteria laid down in Annex IV of the Directive and each Member State is to recognise the certification awarded by other Member States in accordance with those criteria. If Member States identify a substantial gap between the available and necessary number of trained and qualified installers to achieve their renewable energy target, they will need to take measures to address that gap.

Capacity building, technical advisory services and enhanced cooperation between relevant implementing authorities can facilitate the effective implementation of the above provisions.

Proposals should clearly demonstrate the concrete interest of the competent implementation authorities, notably national authorities, to engage in, contribute to and use the results from project activities. Clear commitment can be demonstrated, for instance, through dedicated letters of support.

Actions under this topic are expected to address only one of the two areas below. The area addressed should be clearly specified in the introduction of the proposal.

• Permit-granting procedures and renewable acceleration areas

Proposals addressing this area shall support competent national authorities in implementing relevant articles in the RED related to speeding up and streamlining permitting procedures and/or the development of plans designating renewables acceleration areas for one or more broad types of renewable energy sources. Within this context, and where appropriate, actions might also envisage the provision of support in defining effective strategies to mitigate potential environmental impacts and to facilitate social acceptance.

To that end, proposals are expected to strengthen the capacity, e.g. through the exchange of best practices and training/mentoring programmes and improve collaboration of implementing bodies within and across Member States. Proposals could support the development of new tools and methods or the adaptation and replication of existing effective tools and datasets that facilitate availability and access to data and improve quality of data. Proposals are also encouraged to establish an EU community of practitioners to facilitate mutual learning and support the harmonisation of legislation, where applicable.

Where appropriate, activities may also support the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of relevant policy measures.

Proposals could also address permit-granting procedures for repowering or for new exploration, testing and production, including for pilot installations and innovative renewable energy technologies.

Addressing both permit-granting procedures and renewables acceleration areas will not necessarily lead to a higher score but could however be carried out if duly justified, for instance if the results from the action stemming from the designation of renewables acceleration areas would be used and would clearly provide added value for streamlining permit-granting procedures.

2. Support national authorities on the implementation of Article 18 of the RED

Proposals addressing this area shall support, including through technical advice and tools, competent national authorities in charge of the implementation of a framework to ensure a sufficient number of trained and qualified installers and designers of renewable heating and cooling systems in buildings, industry and agriculture, installers of solar photovoltaic systems, including energy storage, and installers of recharging points enabling demand response pursuant to article 18 of Directive 2018/2001 as amended. Actions shall carry out one or more of the following:

• Support the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of relevant provisions at the national level.
• Support the national assessment and identification of gaps between available and necessary number of trained and qualified installers to achieve their renewable energy targets set out in the Directive.
• Promote and enable exchange of insights and best practices within and across Member States, including on the mutual recognition of certification schemes and increased cross-border mobility of workers.
• Scope, assess and model the impact of implementation options at the national level to fill possible gaps, thereby contributing to the design of more effective policies.

Proposals covering upskilling and reskilling activities such as the development/update of qualification and training schemes are not considered eligible within this topic.

Actions will be required to plan cooperation with the Skill4Energy Platform (planned to be launched by the European Commission in 2025 or 2026) and its governance bodies to disseminate information, promote best practices, and provide input to identify measures facilitating cross-border mobility and establish mutually recognised certifications.

• For actions addressing technical support and capacity building for the transition towards renewable-based and efficient district heating and cooling systems, please refer to topic LIFE-2025-CET-DHC.
• For actions addressing support services for energy communities creation, please refer to LIFE-2025-CET-ENERCOM.

Proposals must be submitted by at least 3 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 2 million would allow the specific objectives to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

[1] Directive (EU) 2018/2001 as amended by Directive (EU) 2023/2413.