The bulk of the funds will be for efficiency upgrades to infrastructure, including council buildings, stadia, education facilities, town halls and nursing homes. It will be made up of three programmes, with the funds broken down into $200 million for councils and not-for-profit and community groups, $100 million for low-income households and $40 million for small- and medium-sized enterprises and community groups.
Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Minister Greg Combet, Regional Minister Simon Crean and Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change Mark Dreyfus jointly in Canberra the new initiative.
"The community accepts the need for action on climate change and the programmes announced today are a step in the transition to a cleaner economy," the ministers said in a joint statement.
It will reach the different groups through grants to interested parties. The government will issue calls for expression of interests next week. The ministers assured there would be proper safeguards to ensure the money would be spent well.
Mr Dreyfus said the energy efficient programs are designed differently from the failed home insulation scheme which caused the death of four Australians and hundreds of razed homes.
Under the community energy efficiency programme, funding for wind and solar power systems are not eligible, but solar hot water systems are included since the latter is not considered a renewable energy generation scheme.
For the low-income energy efficiency programme, the purchase and installation of renewable energy generation systems such as solar photovoltaic, micro-hydro, wind turbine and biomass generation systems are excluded.
The launch came ahead of the July 1 implementation date of the carbon tax, which some sectors blame for the expected rise in prices, including air fare.
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