Australian Government Offers New $321 Million Round of Grants to Cut Emissions

The new grants are aimed at helping trade-exposed companies cut their emissions.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen in Sydney, Australia, on Dec. 10, 2025. Rebecca Zhu/The Epoch Times

The Albanese government has opened a new $321 million round of grants for Australia’s largest companies to help cut emissions.

The money is being made available through the second round of the Powering the Regions Fund, which is part of the government’s Future Made in Australia scheme aimed at developing local manufacturing.

Grants will range from $500,000 to $50 million, covering up to 50 percent of eligible project costs. The program is limited to owners or operators of companies involved in the Safeguard Mechanism, which caps the amount of emissions allowed for high emitters.

It excludes new or expanded coal or gas production projects.

$321 Million Round Targets Trade-Exposed Heavy Industry

The government said the grants are intended to help Australian facilities remain competitive as international demand increases for low-emissions products.

The program is also designed to reduce the risk of “carbon leakage”—where emissions-intensive production move offshore to countries with weaker climate rules—and to support skills development for workers operating new equipment or processes that reduce emissions.

The Commonwealth has allocated $600 million over the life of the program. This second round provides $321 million in funding from 2025–26 to 2032–33.

Round one funded more than a dozen projects. The government says those projects will cut more than 1 million tonnes of emissions each year, which it compared to removing more than 240,000 cars from the road.

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said the grants were designed to support industry.

“We’re backing Australian industry to remain globally competitive as the world undergoes the biggest economic change since the Industrial Revolution, presenting Australia with an enormous economic and jobs opportunity,” Bowen said.

The new funding push comes as climate policy remains a major fault line in federal politics, particularly on the opposition benches.

In Nov. 2025 the Liberal Party formally abandoned its commitment to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

The party voted to dump the net-zero target while keeping Australia inside the 2015 Paris Agreement—a framework that requires countries to strengthen emissions reduction goals over time.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Trump administration has clamped down on taxpayer-backed subsidies for renewable projects, while suspending new leases and raising fees for projects.