AusIndustry has launched the Climate Ready Program. Climate Ready is a competitive merit-based grants program that aims to increase the level of high quality innovation activities by small to medium sized enterprises in Australia that address the effects of climate change. It provides grants from $50,000 to $5 million for the costs of research and development, proof-of-concept and early-stage commercialisation activities in eligible projects.

The program will support projects for innovations designed specifically to address the impacts of climate change which may include:

• water recycling, waste recovery or small scale renewable energy technologies
• technologies that reduce the energy used by appliances or increase the efficiency of industrial processes
• products, processes or services to monitor emissions or power usage
• using biotechnology or nanotechnology to address the effects of climate change on humans and the environment
• information systems for businesses or consumers to compare the carbon footprints of different activities
• green building materials that make homes more energy effcient and more comfortable.

The Climate Ready Program comprises:

• small grants between $50,000 – $500,000 for projects up to 2 years duration (with possible 6 month extension)
• large grants between $500,001 – $5 million for projects up to 3 years duration (with possible 6 month extension).

Click here for details (.pdf).

Announcing what she described as "the most significant economic and structural reform undertaken in Australia since the trade liberalisation of the 1980s", Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, has outlined the timetable for the introduction of carbon emissions trading in Australia.

The timetable includes immediate consultation with business leading to a "green paper" on the scheme to be published in July. There will then be opportunities to suggest changes to the scheme prior to the release of a draft Bill in December. Senator Wong said that she expected the Bill would be passed by Parliament in mid-2009 and come into effect in 2010.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued guidance for businesses and industry on the use of environmental claims in marketing.

Graeme Samuel, ACCC Chairman, said that the guidelines aim to aim to educate businesses about their obligations and and to assist manufacturers, suppliers, advertisers and others to assess the strength of any green claims they make. This will help to improve the accuracy and usefulness to consumers of their labeling, packaging and advertising.

However, choosing to ignore the ACCC’s advice could lead to fines of up to $1.1 million.

Companies which label products as ‘environmentally friendly’, ‘environmentally safe’, ‘energy efficient’, ‘recyclable’, ‘carbon neutral’, ‘renewable’ or ‘green’ can expect the ACCC to be checking their claims.

A here for a full copy of the Guidelines (.pdf). The main points are below:

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