General Information: Assistance Programmes

Assistance programmes – Who funds what?

Under the Environmental Innovation Programme, the German Federal Environment Ministry provides assistance for investment in reducing environmental pollution both inside and outside Germany. Within Germany it promotes investment projects of a demonstration character which represent an advanced state of technology and which are being implemented in Germany for the first time. Outside Germany, it funds investment projects with a direct transboundary effect on Germany, or projects with climate protection effects in the EU accession countries and the EU candidate countries.

Objectives

Assistance within Germany

The funding of projects within Germany is intended to demonstrate ways of preventing or reducing environmental pollution by means of innovative technological processes or novel process combinations, and also ways of producing and using environmentally sound products.

Assistance abroad

The funding of projects outside Germany has two main objectives:

• Direct transboundary environmental protection effects on Germany, e.g. reducing pollutant levels in boundary waters or atmospheric pollution in border regions;
• Demonstration of cost-effective climate protection measures in the EU accession countries with maximum transferability to the target country. Such measures should foster a readiness for these countries to undertake their own environmental protection projects and promote greater acceptance of environmental protection.

German government policy

Environmental Innovation Programme

The Federal Environment Ministry provides funds from the Environmental Innovation Programme to promote demonstration projects within Germany which for the first time draw attention to large-scale reduction/avoidance potential and which can be transferred to similar systems operated by other users. As a rule, such projects are funded by subsidising the interest on a loan from the KfW Mittelstandsbank. In justified exceptional cases the Federal Environment Ministry may also provide an investment grant. The assistance is increasingly focusing on integrated environmental protection measures. Key issues here are climate protection measures, including projects concerned with renewable energy and energy efficiency. However, measures in the fields of water/wastewater, waste, air quality control and noise abatement are also basically eligible for funding. Information on other key assistance areas can be found under Investitionsförderung im Inland.

Pilot projects abroad

In addition, the Federal Environment Ministry also provides assistance for investment projects abroad which are capable of achieving direct environmental effects for Germany, or which increase the readiness of the relevant countries to invest in climate protection measures as a result of "philosophy transfer" and multiplier maximisation. Further information (including on the application process) can be found under Investitionsförderung im Ausland.

Third-party assistance programmes

Apart from the Environmental Innovation Programme for environmental protection projects, third-party assistance programmes are another possible means of obtaining funding for pilot projects in Germany and abroad. For example, funds are provided by other German federal ministries, the KfW banking group, regional and local authorities, and the European Community. Further details can be found in the Förderdatenbank des Bundes.

www.bmu.de/english/ecological_industrial_policy

• Economy / Innovation
• Europe and Environment
• Climate Initiative