Grants to help industry tackle climate change

The $75 million Re-tooling for Climate Change program helps small and medium enterprises reduce their environmental footprint by improving the energy and/or water efficiency of their production processes.

The successful projects from rounds one and two, announced by Innovation Minister, Senator Kim Carr, received grants of between $10,000 and $500,000 and support a total investment of $11.8 million.

As well as praising the efforts of the recipients in greening their businesses, Senator Carr announced that this success would be further built on through changes to the Re-tooling for Climate Change program.

“Successful projects from the first two rounds reflect the reality for business in the 21st century — a reality based on a new, greener way of operating,” Senator Carr said.

"These businesses have not only helped tackle climate change but have put themselves on a more sustainable footing.

“The government is going to encourage more businesses to follow this example by broadening the eligibility criteria.

“From today, manufacturers with an entity turnover of less than $100 million (changed from group turnover) will be eligible to apply for assistance under the program.

“In the present climate, manufacturers are finding it extremely difficult to find the money needed to upgrade production facilities to reduce energy and water use.

“I also want to provide some certainty for manufacturers and facilitate their planning by announcing the closing dates for rounds in the program over the next year.

“Round three of the program closes on 1 June.

“The closing dates for rounds four, five and six will be 24 August 2009, 30 November 2009 and 22 March 2010 respectively.

“A higher assistance rate — at the level of one half the eligible expenditure — will apply to all these rounds including round three.

“These changes demonstrate the Rudd government's willingness to quickly respond to the challenges facing Australian manufacturers by amending its assistance programs where appropriate."

Re-tooling for Climate Change is part of the Rudd government’s Clean Business Australia initiative — a $240 million partnership, over four years, between the government and industry for tackling climate change.

For information on the Re-tooling for Climate Change program, visit AusIndustry's website at www.ausindustry.gov.au, email hotline@ausindustry.gov.au or call 13 28 46.