Quantifying Horizon Europe’s environmental benefits
A pilot study using Life Cycle Assessment
As the impacts of climate change become increasingly pronounced, the urgency for comprehensive and effective policy responses has intensified. Concerted efforts need to be made to contribute to decarbonising and meeting net zero targets in time. For this, Horizon Europe supports R&I addressing major environmental and climate challenges and is expected to allocate between 2021 and 2027 more than EUR 32 billion to climate and over EUR 3.7 billion to clean air projects. This report aims to perform a first attempt at quantifying the contribution of Horizon Europe to reducing environmental impacts through energy or resource savings. The analysis builds on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to allow to comprehensively consider impacts throughout the value chain, based on primary data provided by project beneficiaries and considering the full list of impact categories of the Environmental Footprint method recommended by the European Commission. A first upscale to estimate potential overall environmental benefits at Horizon Europe level is also performed. Notwithstanding limitations due to the small sample size, this study provides a robust evaluation framework that can be integrated into future monitoring and evaluation exercises. Furthermore, practical suggestions on how to use this type of assessment in future monitoring and evaluation exercises are also provided.
DE LAURENTIIS Valeria;
ORZA Vasco;
NATUNEN Veera;
ZANOBETTI Leonardo;
LISTORTI Giulia;
2025-07-30
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC142246
978-92-68-30226-2 (online),
1831-9424 (online),
EUR 40395,
OP KJ-01-25-390-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC142246,
10.2760/6258234 (online),
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