A new £76 million scheme to boost jobs and economic growth in Scotland’s low carbon sector has been unveiled by the Scottish Government.
Keith Brown, Minister for Infrastructure and Investment, said that the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP) will provide tailored support for established and start-up infrastructure projects across the private, public and community sectors.
The £76 million scheme is receiving £33 million European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) grant funding under the new 2014-20 European Structural Funds (ESF) programme. The remainder is match funding from partners. Three levels of support will be offered to low carbon projects: –
- Catalyst support for start-up projects
- Development support for more advanced projects, and
- Demonstrator support for a projects already using commercially proven technology.
Brown said: “The estimated market value of sales in Scotland’s low carbon and environmental goods and services sector in 2011/12 was £10.1 billion, with around 4200 companies employing 78,000 people.
“This is forecast to grow by 30 per cent to reach a value of £13.2 billion by 2016/17 and the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme will ensure that the low carbon sector delivers significant jobs and economic growth for Scotland.
“The ESF 2007-13 programmes supported more than 800 projects, summarised in an e-book launched today.”
Director of ECCI, Andy Kerr said: “Over the past four years ECCI’s team engaged with over 1000 organisations to create new low carbon products and services and millions of pounds of turnover for the Scottish economy and help transform the low carbon innovation landscape.
“Scotland has huge advantages for leading the low carbon economy: it has both the ‘know-how’ to support energy transformation, and the capacity for joined-up approaches between public and private enterprises. The Smart Accelerator is evidence of just this.”
Since December 2010, ECCI has supported around 150 companies to develop low carbon products and services with the aim of generating £17 million for the Scottish economy.
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