Pakistan is reportedly giving tree-planting jobs to workers laid off by Covid-19. The initiative is part of a programme to grow ten-billion trees that can absorb carbon and clean the air.
This is an example of the type of green recovery South Africa can embark on in the aftermath of the pandemic, while at the same time giving work to our jobless people. Post-Covid, South Africa should apply the vigour it has shown in flattening the coronavirus curve to flattening the climate curve.
The huge number of unemployed South Africans are capable of lending a hand in the global battle to capture ever-increasing volumes of carbon dioxide through the wonders of photosynthesis. Sustainable, green economic development at tree-planting level then needs to be matched with sustainable, green cost-cutting development at power generation level, using the sun, wind and green hydrogen to make our mobility emission free with the help of our unique platinum group metals endowment.