In honour of Earth Day we are releasing our six-point climate change framework. The framework is purposefully brief, easy to read, and centred on small business.
We don’t claim to have scientific expertise in this area, and we acknowledge that not all small business owners feel the same way about climate change. All we ask is for actions addressing climate change to consider small business by including these six points: equitable action, improved access to crisis recovery resources, improved crisis planning, transitional arrangements to renewables, equal access to the benefits of a sustainable future, and national structure.
In the past COSBOA avoided using the words ‘climate change’ because of the emotional response it evoked in people on the far right and far left. It would lead to unproductive fights about whether or not climate change existed when what we wanted was to spark discussions about managing problems like un-affordable energy bills and small business vulnerability to natural hazards.
That changed in January 2020, when it seemed that the obstinance of powerful climate change deniers at Parliament House had caused governments to ignore warnings of a disastrous bushfire season, leading to what was initially a chaotic and disorganised response to the bushfire crisis twe remember all too well.
Of course, COSBOA’s focus in all of this has and always will be small business. The last thing we want is a climate change mitigation strategy that causes small business owners to suffer financially (which will happen if we completely ignore the economy as some people would like). At the same time, small business owners - like everyone else - are vulnerable to effects of climate change like increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and the associated rise in insurance costs. They too will benefit from actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Read our six-point framework here.