Energy is much in the news lately, and this week’s Sustainability round-up covers several of those updates. In this bulletin, read about Ireland’s Community Energy Grant Scheme; Northern Ireland’s ramp up of information for businesses on clean energy and the Energy Strategy for Northern Ireland; the opening of Phase 2 of the UK’s Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF); and the EU Commission’s launch of five new missions to tackle big challenges in health, climate and the environment, and to achieve ambitious and inspiring goals in these areas.
Businesses to benefit from Ireland’s government investment support for energy projects
Businesses are among the 83 recipients of government funding that is to be made available for community and home energy projects under the Community Energy Grant Scheme, worth €57 million in Ireland. The announcement was made this week by Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan .
Under the Scheme, funding is provided for a range of improvements to existing buildings to drive energy efficiency and facilitate the installation of renewable technologies. Recipients of funding include businesses, public sector projects, sports facilities, homes and community buildings. The grants are administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and complement a suite of other SEAI-led energy upgrade grant options. Click here for more information.
Northern Ireland’s ramps up information on energy for business
The Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland has launched a new e-zine is to keep businesses informed of funding opportunities available in the clean tech and green innovation space. The ezine, ‘Funding innovation for net zero’ e-zine, describes all relevant external funding opportunities available for projects which promote clean energy and a low carbon economy.
The new ezine was launched on the same day as the September issue of the Energy Strategy e-bulletin published. This bulletin, which aims to keep stakeholders informed about progress on the new Energy Strategy for Northern Ireland, also covers progress on energy decarbonisation by government departments and innovative plans for future initiatives that will support the Energy Strategy. The September issues also highlighted how businesses can receive regular information on other energy and consumer issues from the Utility Regulator and the Consumer Council.
This Institute responded to the call for evidence on Northern Ireland’s Climate Change (No.2) Bill which seeks to set targets for the years 2050, 2040 and 2030 for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and among other objectives establish a system of carbon budgeting. In our submission, we stated our support of carbon budgets and urged that the setting of carbon emission reduction targets is only the first step in addressing climate action; having mechanisms in place to enable the achievement of the targets set is of paramount importance. You can view our response here.
Funding of £60 million available from UK Government for Business’s energy transformation
The UK’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy announced this week that Phase 2 of the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF) opened on 27 September 2021 for the Autumn 2021 competition, and will run until 6 December 2021. The fund is available for businesses in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, and is a £60 million grant fund for the following types of project:
- studies - feasibility and engineering studies to enable companies to investigate identified energy efficiency and decarbonisation projects prior to making an investment decision
- energy efficiency - deployment of technologies to reduce industrial energy consumption
- deep decarbonisation - deployment of technologies to achieve industrial emissions savings
Businesses can apply for funding here.
EU Commission launches climate and sustainability ‘missions’
The EU Commission has this week launched five new EU ‘missions’ which aim to deliver solutions to key global challenges by 2030 in health, climate and the environment.
Three of the areas of focus of the five missions are adaptation to climate change, supporting 150 European regions and communities to become climate resilient by 2030; restoration of ocean and waters; and the creation of 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030. The other two missions will focus on working with Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and a plan to transition towards healthy soils.
Missions are innovations of Horizon Europe, Europe’s research and innovation funding programme until 2027. They bring together several Commission services and aim to support research to deliver on the Commission’s main priorities and find responses to some of the greatest challenges we are facing today. They include a set of actions, such as research and innovation projects, policy measures and legislative initiatives, to achieve concrete goals with large societal impact and within a specified timeline.
Commenting on the missions, Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “The response to the coronavirus pandemic has shown that we can only tackle our biggest problems with a collective effort rooted in research and innovation. This is also the starting point of the bold and ambitious EU missions. They will mobilise the enormous potential of the EU and rally instruments and policies to achieve important goals. And all this together with the citizens, who are involved from start to finish.”
The missions have launched into their full implementation phase, having received the go-ahead from the EU Commission after the approval of the missions’ individual plans this summer. The first Horizon Europe work programme for 2021-22, published on 16 June, includes a set of actions that lay the ground for their implementation and in parallel, missions will engage with participating regions, cities and organisations, as well as citizens in the Member States. A critical element of missions will be to reach out to local communities and engage with citizens to boost societal uptake of new solutions and approaches. Find out more about EU missions here.
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