Making LIFE cleaner and healthier for Europeans

The EU zero pollution action plan is ‘a cornerstone of the EU’s ambitions to reduce pollution to the extent that it no longer harms human health and natural ecosystems.’ That’s a tall order, but 2 LIFE projects are already showing the way to a non-toxic environment. LIFE Clean Air Farming and LIFE BIOAs are just 2 of hundreds of projects helping to make life cleaner and healthier for European citizens. 

LIFE Clean Air Farming, a €1.8 million project from 2018 to 2022, showed how to slash toxic methane and ammonia gases from conventional livestock farming. Agriculture produces 55% of methane and 94% of ammonia emissions in the EU, not only contributing to global warming but also damaging human health and biodiversity. With the EU home to around 133 million pigs, 74 million cows, 58 million sheep and 11 million goats, that’s a lot of toxic gas. 

The project team worked with meat and dairy producers in the Mayenne region of north-west France to help them switch to less polluting ways of farming. Some chose to go organic, while others adopted a mixed approach. ‘Our grasslands are sown as multi-species mixtures with grasses and legumes,’ explains dairy farmer Rodolphe Doineau from Bouère, who took part in the project. ‘Our cows spend less time indoors, which means less manure to spread, fewer emissions and less tractor work. As well as the positive impact on the environment, we are really benefiting economically.’ 

Despite this encouraging feedback, many farmers are slow to change. ‘We realised that not even factually correct arguments can always convince people to change,’ notes project manager Christine Hellerström. ‘The project was really an accelerator of a social debate on the future direction of agriculture.’ As a direct result of the project, says Christine, the agricultural sector has been included in the EU methane strategy; the international protocol which governs transboundary air pollution now includes stricter limits on ammonia; the German government committed to reduce methane and ammonia emissions; and France adopted a national plan to eliminate the use of slurry spraying. 

Also doing its bit to reduce pollution in Europe is the €1.8 million, 4-year project LIFE BIOAs, which closed last year. Several countries including Italy, Greece, Croatia, Germany and Portugal have areas where groundwater arsenic levels exceed safety limits. Using natural residues from the olive oil industry, LIFE BIOAs successfully cleaned 5 000 litres of arsenic-contaminated groundwater at Viterbo, Italy, using bio-adsorbants which produce 85% less waste, cost 50% less and use 90% less raw material than traditional methods. An outdoor portable water purification prototype was also successfully tested in Portugal. 

‘Many municipalities have had to install water treatment plants to remove arsenic, but maintaining a supply of clean drinking water comes at a high price,’ says project manager Francesca Pagnanelli. ‘LIFE BIOAs shows you can remove arsenic from water at a fraction of the financial and environmental cost.’ 

LIFE projects support the zero pollution action plan through the EU Directives on water, urban waste water, drinking water, habitats, birds, pollution prevention and control and waste, as well as the regulation on water reuse. They also align with the goals of the European Green Deal, the long-term climate strategy and the Clean Industrial Deal.