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

Expected Impact:

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 rely on a solid analysis of the current situation, realistic assumptions and baselines, and establish clear causality links between activities, results and impacts.

In terms of qualitative impact, proposals under this topic should demonstrate how they will contribute to the following outcomes, as relevant:

• Increased understanding and practical 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, implementation 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 in all end-use sectors and better monitoring; use of more accurate calculation and Measurement & Verification methodologies, including for cross-sector use of energy; improved quality of reporting; improved understanding and measurement of the impacts and non-energy benefits of policy measures, also in view of the circular economy.

In terms of quantitative impact, proposals should quantify their results and impacts using the indicators provided for the topic, when they are relevant for 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.

• 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 project
• Number of policy measures, implementing acts and related documents improved by the project
• Number of monitoring and reporting tools and documents improved by the project
• Number of references in policy-relevant documents, such as impact assessments, guidance documents etc.

Proposals should also provide indicators which are specific to their proposed activities.

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

• 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:

Energy efficiency and the built environment are at the heart of many of the policy challenges that the European Union is facing today: the EU’s competitiveness, Europe’s energy security, the affordability of housing, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the strengthening of resilience. Key legislative pieces of the Fit for 55 package and the REpowerEU are designed to address those challenges. The LIFE-2026-CET-POLICY topic aims to support the implementation of some of the key pieces of legislation in the field of sustainable energy, notably the Energy Efficiency Directive^[1] (EED) and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive^[2] (EPBD).

Scope:

Proposals are expected to support Member States in the implementation of:

• the Energy Efficiency Directive (Scope A).
• the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (Scope B).

Proposals are expected to focus on one of the 2 scopes, as detailed below. The scope addressed should be specified in the introduction of the proposal. Proposals may address elements of more than one scope; the coherence and added-value of a cross-cutting approach should be adequately explained.

Proposals 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 the implementation of requirements of the directives, according to the national and regional context
• Support the monitoring and evaluation of policy implementation
• Develop, support and apply methodologies to more accurately measure, calculate and account for contributions made under the specific policy measures and programmes, including data gathering for the energy efficiency and buildings sector
• Develop and support integrated methodologies for areas and sectors that are addressed by different policies and pieces of legislation, notably approaches for integrated collection of data, calculation/accounting, verification, monitoring, evaluation and reporting as well as modelling and monitoring of energy and non-energy impacts of integrated solutions.

For proposals focused specifically on local heating and cooling plans please consider applying under the topic LIFE-2026-CET-HEATCOOLPLAN: Supporting the delivery of actionable, integrated, and comprehensive Local Heating and Cooling Plans.

For proposals focused specifically on improving information instruments under the EPBD, please consider applying under the topic LIFE-2026-CET-BETTERRENO.

Scope A: Support for the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive

Actions under Scope A are expected to address the core provisions and aspects of the Energy Efficiency Directive, notably at least one of the following:

• the Energy Efficiency First principle, supporting Member States in the efficient implementation of the principle and helping develop easy-to-learn, standardised or simplified (cost effective) assessment methodologies, tools, benchmarks and processes, including for the application of the principle in policy design and planning decisions in energy infrastructure, in national policies supporting the energy transition, in public support schemes, and in planning and investment decisions at regional and local levels
• the role of the public sector in delivering the specific targets established for the public sector, e.g. by supporting Member States in developing strategies, mapping public buildings and gathering and calculating data from public bodies
• the Energy Savings Obligations and Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes, supporting Member States in the design and implementation of the schemes and in the calculation of contributions and evaluation of measures
• supporting Member States for the Comprehensive Assessments for Heating and Cooling in accordance with EED Art. 25 by providing national guidance, tools and structures to support regional and local authorities, by developing heat transition governance linking regional, local and national level, by collecting necessary data for planning the heating transition (based also on local heating and cooling plans) and by ensuring coherence in data collection and planning of the heat transition between the Energy Efficiency Directive’s comprehensive heating & cooling assessment and policies (EED Art. 25), and (iv) the local heating & cooling plans (EED Art. 25(6)), as well as other relevant planning and data collection (e.g. National Building Renovation Plans (EPBD Art. 3), national energy performance of buildings databases (EPBD Art. 22))
• supporting Member States in the implementation of EED Art. 11 provisions related to Energy Audits and Energy Management System, notably to facilitate faster implementation of recommended measures listed in the companies’ Action Plan through a harmonised approach on the audit methods across EU Member States and sectors.

Scope B: Support for the implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive

The EPBD aims to deliver energy efficiency, more affordable energy costs in buildings and to strengthen resilience. The transposition deadline of the EPBD is on 29 May 2026 and Member States are aiming for coherent and effective implementation actions at all levels of governance, including regional and local level. The transposition and implementation of the EPBD requires strong political and practical commitment from Member States. In this context, the actions under Scope B are expected to address core provisions and practical implementation aspects of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD).

Actions should address one of the three focus areas below, even if not limited to these:

1. Actions to enhance the public awareness of the benefits of implementing the EPBD provisions, effectiveness and coherence of instruments designed to improve the energy performance of buildings through a higher number of and deeper renovations
2. Actions to support the implementation of all EPBD policy tools for the transition to a climate-neutral building stock
3. Actions to support an optimal roll-out of building data and information tools in the context of EPBD.

For both scopes A and B:

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) 2023/1791 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2023 on energy efficiency and amending Regulation (EU) 2023/955 (recast)

[2] Directive (EU) 2024/1275 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 April 2024 on the energy performance of buildings