The Scottish government has announced a new £76m scheme to boost jobs and economic growth in the country’s low carbon sector.

Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities Keith Brown unveiled the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP) to provide tailored support for projects across the private, public and community sectors.

The scheme is receiving £33m European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) grant funding under the new 2014-20 European Structural Funds (ESF) programme. The remainder is match funding from partners.

The project will be managed by the Scottish government and public sector partners including Scottish Futures Trust and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. Resource Efficient Scotland, a programme of Zero Waste Scotland, will provide technical expertise.

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Mr Brown said: "The Scottish Government is committed to a value for money approach to growing Scotland’s low carbon economy, and the establishment of the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme is a significant step in this effort.

"The estimated market value of sales in Scotland’s low carbon and environmental goods and services sector in 2011/12 was £10.1bn, with around 4200 companies employing 78,000 people.

"This is forecast to grow by 30% to reach a value of £13.2bn by 2016/17 and the Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme will ensure that the low carbon sector delivers significant jobs and economic growth for Scotland. The ESF 2007-13 programmes supported more than 800 projects, summarised in an e-book launched today."

Director of ECCI, Andy Kerr said: "Over the past four years ECCI’s team engaged with over 1000 organisations to create new low carbon products and services and millions of pounds of turnover for the Scottish economy and help transform the low carbon innovation landscape.

"Scotland has huge advantages for leading the low carbon economy: it has both the ‘know-how’ to support energy transformation, and the capacity for joined-up approaches between public and private enterprises. The Smart Accelerator is evidence of just this."

(IT/MH)