Government enhances support for businesses in transition to low-carbon and sustainable future
27 March 2024
On 1 March 2024, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (“MTI”) announced enhanced measures to support businesses in the transition to a low-carbon and sustainable future. These measures include enhancements to the Energy Efficiency Grant (“EEG”), an expansion of the Enterprise Financing Scheme-Green (“EFS-Green”), a new sustainability reporting grant and programme, enhancements to the Resource Efficiency Grant for Emissions (“REG(E)”), and support for workers to upskill and reskill for the green transition.
Enhancement of EEG
The EEG aims to support businesses in their sustainability journey by co-funding investments in energy-efficient equipment.
Enterprise Singapore (“EnterpriseSG”) will enhance the EEG by including more sectors and providing additional support for companies with more ambitious plans to reduce their emissions.
From 1 April 2024, local food services, retail, and manufacturing companies can continue to receive enhanced support of up to 70%. The EEG will be open to other industries, such as maritime, construction, and data centres by the end of 2024.
Expansion of EFS-Green
EFS-Green enables better access to green financing for Singapore companies that develop green technologies and solutions by providing risk-sharing of 70% to support lending by partner financial institutions to qualified Singapore enterprises.
EnterpriseSG will extend EFS-Green by two years until 31 March 2026. In addition, EFS-Green will be expanded beyond supporting the development of green solutions to include adopting green solutions which are classified as “Green” or “Amber” under the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Singapore-Asia Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance launched in December 2023.
New sustainability reporting grant and programme
In view of the increasing demand for companies to publish climate-related disclosures, including upcoming regulations to mandate climate-related disclosures for some Singapore-incorporated companies, the Economic Development Board (“EDB”) and EnterpriseSG will launch a Sustainability Reporting Grant. This grant will provide funding support for large companies with annual revenue S$100 million and above, to cover a portion of their costs in producing their first sustainability report in Singapore. The grant defrays up to 30% of qualifying costs, capped at the lower of S$150,000 per company, or 30% of the qualifying costs in the preparation of their first sustainability report.
While sustainability reporting is currently not mandatory for small and medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”), it is fast becoming a critical capability given the increasing requirement by large corporates and multinational corporations to assess their suppliers’ sustainability performance. To enable SMEs to conduct sustainability reporting, EnterpriseSG will partner with appointed sustainability service providers to launch a programme to help SMEs develop their first sustainability reports. The programme is targeted to be launched in late 2024 and will be available for three years. EnterpriseSG will defray 70% of eligible costs for SMEs participating in the first year of the programme and 50% of costs for the next two years.
Enhancements to REG(E)
The REG(E) provides support for industrial facilities to undertake projects that improve their energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.
EDB will enhance the REG(E) by lowering the carbon abatement threshold from 500 tonnes per annum to 250 tonnes per annum. The REG(E) will also be extended beyond March 2024. These enhancements will allow industrial facilities to tap on the REG(E) for more projects that improve their energy efficiency and carbon emissions reduction.
Supporting workers
To give students and workers opportunity to gain exposure to sustainability reporting, EnterpriseSG will partner sustainability service providers to offer internships and attachments for students and mid-career working professionals to grow their skills in this area.
For the energy sector, the Energy Market Authority is working with training providers to launch training programmes to address clean energy skills gaps identified by the industry.
To support the development of a vibrant carbon services and trading eco-system in Singapore, EDB and EnterpriseSG are working with National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University to develop training programmes in carbon management, services, and trading.
Reference materials
The following materials are available on the MTI website www.mti.gov.sg: