Powering the Regions Fund - Safeguard Transformation Stream Round 1

This grant opportunity was announced in January 2023 as part of the Government’s Safeguard Mechanism Reforms to support the Government’s ambition for Australia to become a renewable energy superpower.

The Powering the Regions Fund will allocate $600 million to the Safeguard Transformation Stream (STS) in recognition of the specific challenges faced by trade exposed facilities.

The objectives of this grant opportunity are to:

• support trade-exposed facilities covered by the Safeguard Mechanism to reduce their emissions and contribute to meeting Australia’s 2030 (and 2050) emissions reduction targets
• reduce the risk of carbon leakage, which occurs when a business responds to emissions reduction policies by moving emissions-intensive production to a country with less stringent policies
• provide skills development to existing industrial workforce in new equipment or processes that contribute to the reduction of scope 1 emissions.