Promising Carbon Neutral Companies Supported Jointly by the Ministry of SMEs, Ministry of Industry, and Ministry of Environment

Joint Announcement of the 2025 Carbon Neutral Commercialization Support Project
Three Ministries Collaborate to Integrate and Streamline Carbon Neutral Support for SMEs and Promising Companies

On the 20th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that it will jointly announce the ‘Carbon Neutral Commercialization Support Project’ with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Environment to focus on supporting promising companies contributing to carbon neutrality.

The ‘Carbon Neutral Commercialization Support Project’ is a representative multi-ministry collaborative project that enhances fiscal execution efficiency by preventing overlapping budget support among government support projects. The existing projects operated separately by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Ministry of Environment will be reorganized and integrated starting in 2025 to be newly promoted.

The reorganized ‘Carbon Neutral Commercialization Support Project’ will commonly reflect the contribution to carbon neutrality as a key evaluation factor when selecting supported companies, focusing on supporting companies related to carbon neutrality. However, specific support areas and contents will be differentiated and operated by each ministry.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will focus on supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) possessing carbon-neutral technologies that require large-scale funding for commercialization and demonstration compared to other fields. It will select 10 SMEs with innovative carbon-neutral technologies such as climate tech and support commercialization (6 companies, up to 200 million KRW per company) including certification acquisition and investment consulting. Additionally, it plans to support demonstration (4 companies, up to 600 million KRW per company) such as facility establishment 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 through a circular economy supply chain must jointly participate (forming a consortium of three or more companies) to apply. Selected consortia will be supported with commercialization funds up to 600 million KRW annually per consortium for up to three years (maximum 1.8 billion KRW) for prototype production, performance and reliability evaluation, and product manufacturing.

The Ministry of Environment will select four promising small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-sized companies across all climate tech fields and support up to 700 million KRW annually per company for up to three years (maximum 2.1 billion KRW) for commercialization expenses such as prototype production and improvement, performance evaluation, certification and verification, as well as technology commercialization consulting expenses including greenhouse gas reduction verification and commercialization strategies.

Park Seung-rok, head of the Future Technology Response Support Group at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “Amid the steep growth of global investment and market size related to climate tech, competition among countries worldwide to dominate the global climate tech market is fierce,” adding, “We will discover and nurture promising domestic climate tech SMEs to secure global competitiveness.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.