The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Oh Young-joo, hereinafter referred to as MSS) , the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (Minister Ahn Deok-geun, hereinafter referred to as MSIT) , and the Ministry of Environment (Minister Kim Wan-seop) announced on the 21st that they will be recruiting participating companies from February 10 to February 21 for the 'Carbon Neutral Business Support Project' to intensively support promising companies contributing to carbon neutrality.
The 'Carbon Neutral Business Support Project' is a representative multi-departmental collaborative project that improves the efficiency of financial execution by preventing overlapping budget support among government-supported projects. The existing projects operated by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Ministry of Environment will be reorganized and integrated to be newly promoted from 2025.
The revised 'Carbon Neutral Business Support Project' commonly reflects carbon neutrality contribution as a key evaluation factor when selecting support target companies and focuses on supporting carbon neutrality-related companies, but each ministry operates differently in terms of specific support areas and contents.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will focus on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises that possess carbon-neutral technologies that require large-scale funds for commercialization and verification compared to other fields. It will select 10 small and medium-sized enterprises possessing carbon-neutral innovative technologies such as climate tech and support commercialization (up to 200 million won per company, 6 companies) through verification and certification acquisition, investment consulting, etc. In addition, it plans to support verification (up to 600 million won per company, 4 companies) such as facility construction and performance verification.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will discover and support circular economy commercialization models to promote the transition to a circular economy throughout the entire industrial supply chain. Companies connected to the circular economy supply chain must apply jointly (form a consortium of three or more companies), and the selected consortium will be provided with commercialization funds, including prototype production, performance and reliability evaluation, and product production, up to KRW 600 million per year per consortium for up to three years (up to KRW 1.8 billion).
The Ministry of Environment plans to select four promising small and medium-sized companies in all climate technology (tech) fields and provide up to KRW 700 million per company per year for up to three years (up to KRW 2.1 billion) for commercialization costs such as prototype production and improvement, performance evaluation, and verification, as well as technology commercialization consulting costs such as greenhouse gas reduction verification and commercialization strategies.
Detailed business announcements related to the support conditions and contents of the carbon neutrality business support project can be found on the websites of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Ministry of Trade , Industry and Energy, and the Ministry of Environment .
Park Seung-rok, head of the Future Technology Response Support Team at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “Amid the rapid growth in global investment and market size related to climate tech, competition among countries around the world to dominate the global climate tech market is fierce,” and added, “We will discover and foster promising small and medium-sized enterprises in the domestic climate tech field to secure global competitiveness.”
Kang Gam-chan, director general of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s Industrial Policy Bureau, said, “The circular economy is a two-birds-with-one-bird industrial area that simultaneously achieves the two goals of carbon neutrality and economic growth.” He added, “We will support companies so that their circular economy ideas can be implemented as actual businesses, contributing to the revitalization of new circular economy industries and the strengthening of industrial supply chains.”
Seo Young-tae, the Ministry of Environment’s Green Transition Policy Director, said, “In order to respond to the climate crisis, it is important to continuously foster innovative companies equipped with climate technology through active support in addition to systems and regulations,” adding, “We will provide multifaceted support to create a green industry ecosystem that leads carbon neutrality through cooperation across ministries.”
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