{"id":47702,"date":"2023-10-20T15:54:41","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/federal-budget-2013-renewable-energy-agency-spared-funding-axe-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:54:41","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:54:41","slug":"federal-budget-2013-renewable-energy-agency-spared-funding-axe-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/federal-budget-2013-renewable-energy-agency-spared-funding-axe-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal budget 2013: Renewable energy agency spared funding axe – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

The federal government will extend the funding for its flagship clean tech initiative, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, confounding fears from green start-ups that the program was to be slashed to the bone.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Media reports in the lead-up to the budget suggested ARENA was set for funding cuts after the government flagged a reduction in the carbon price and the deferment of a tax cut linked to the scheme.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the budget papers, the government has indeed deferred the tax cut until the carbon price is estimated to be above $25.40, which is projected for 2018-19.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, ARENA has emerged relatively unscathed, with Treasurer Wayne Swan and Climate Change Minister Greg Combet announcing that its funding will be extended by two years to 2021-22, with funding \u201cremaining above $3 billion for the life of the program\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This suggests a small cut in the overall amount spent on the agency for its duration, which currently stands at $3.2 billion.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, this extension has been offset by savings of $159.1 million from the Education Investment Fund component of the Solar Flagships program.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unallocated funds from the program, which has only spent $40.9 million on new solar projects from a budget of $200 million since 2009, will be put into the government\u2019s clean energy initiatives.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Start-ups in the clean tech and renewable energy sectors will be relieved to see ARENA saved from Swan\u2019s axe.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The agency looks to boost renewable energy projects by providing funding and guidance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the government has reshuffled money going into the Clean Technology Program after being confronted by \u201cstrong demand\u201d from Australian manufacturers to make their processes cleaner and more sustainable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

$160 million intended for 2015 until 2017 has been brought forward into 2014-15, while $58 million from the current financial year has been pushed forward into 2017-18.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The overall $1.2 billion package, spent over seven years, will remain the same. The Clean Technology Program helps manufacturers reduce their carbon emissions by helping them adopt new technologies to improve efficiency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The federal government will extend the funding for its flagship clean tech initiative, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, confounding fears<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47702"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}