‘PRIORITISE BAILOUTS OF SUSTAINABLE MSMES’

MBABANE – “Governments should prioritise bailout packages for sectors that are poised to create green jobs and thrive in a low-carbon economy.”

That is a call made by the Federation of Eswatini Business Community (FESBC) experts.  According to FESBC, across sectors, government needs to deploy resources to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) on the condition that they commit to align their post-COVID-19 strategies with a 1.5°C to 2.0°C economy and adopt best practices for climate-related risk disclosure using international standards.

“More generally, in order to increase the resilience of carbon-intense economies and sectors, our government should make climate-related disclosure standards mandatory,” shared FESBC. There is also a call for preparation for complex job transitions. “Our nation and the world is going through a massive unemployment crisis (by mid-May 2020, new jobless claims totalled more than 35 million in the US alone). Once economies restart, millions of people will go back to work—some into sectors that have been radically changed.

“As our government responds to this shift in labour markets, they should prepare to manage a ‘just transition’ of the workforce toward a net zero economy (by boosting renewable SMME industries that may be threatened by lower energy prices and limited investment capacity, for example),” stressed FESBC. FESBC experts further stressed on addressing inequality together with carbon emissions.

Vulnerable

“The economic fallout from the pandemic is a global disaster, but it will hit our most vulnerable parts of society especially hard. As our government combat rising inequalities, they should prioritise reforms that also accelerate economic transformation, such as revenue-neutral carbon-tax schemes paying per capita dividends. “The aim of such carbon tax is to alleviate poverty, by providing unemployment benefit, increase social and welfare benefit and reduce income tax across the Kingdom,” said FESBC.

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