Today, together with the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar TD and Minister James Browne TD, I was delighted to announce a new €55m ‘Green Transition’ fund to help businesses move away from fossil fuels and towards more sustainable, cheaper alternatives.
We will only achieve our climate targets with an all-of-Government, all-of-society approach, and the business sector has a vital role to play in our transition to a low-carbon economy. This is an exciting time for businesses who want to make that transition, and I am delighted to be part of a Government that is targeting supports towards a greener, more sustainable and more resilient business environment.
Employees, customers, funders and shareholders alike are demanding more from businesses when it comes to their environmental credentials. As businesses continue their recovery from the pandemic, this €55 million Green Transition Fund is a great example of how Government funding can be used to help enterprise to move away from pre-Covid, business as usual models, to models that deliver for the environment, as well as for their employees, their customers and the communities in which they operate.
The Green Transition Fund is part of Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), which is funded by the European Union and comprises of;
The Climate Planning Fund for Business, which will give businesses funding to come up with a personalised plan to identify how best to remove reliance on fossil fuels in their business. A €1,800 grant to develop a plan and up to €50,000 matched funding to go towards specific capacity building within an enterprise are among the grants available.
The Enterprise Emissions Reduction Investment Fund, which will give manufacturing businesses funding to invest in carbon neutral heating processes, smart metering and energy monitoring, and research and development. Up to €1m is available for businesses to upgrade their processes.
The programmes will run over the next five years
The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) was developed by the Government to direct funding under the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. Ireland is expected to receive more than €900 million in grants over the lifetime of the Facility.
The Recovery and Resilience Facility is the largest component of NextGenerationEU, the European Union’s response to the global pandemic. The aim is to help repair the immediate economic and social damage brought about by the pandemic and to prepare for a post-Covid Europe that is greener, more digital, more resilient and fit to face the future.
The Green Transition Fund is targeted to contribute specifically to the Climate Action Plan 2021 measure of increasing the proportion of carbon neutral heating in low temperature manufacturing processes.