Climate change and microfinance seem like two different criteria, but they have a lot in common. Although it is true that both concepts are almost new in the Peruvian situation, in other countries, issues related to climate change are of utmost importance and are even state policies.
We know that the greatest damage to the environment has been basically caused by irresponsible companies that due to negligence or ignorance negatively impacted on human habitat and on wild flora and fauna. However, even in modern times damage to ecology continues to be caused in various parts of the country. All this has brought as a consequence that pollution affects the environment, bringing with it havoc on ecology and climate.
Climate change is ultimately all those natural transformations that have been occurring as a result of mismanagement of the environment. Over the course of 96 hours we had the opportunity to see large blocks of ice melting and slipping as if they were chunks of ice taken out of our refrigerator and placed in a lagoon. Hence the theory that water will rise two centimeters in the next ten years and so on is correct.
Other causes of climate change are related to global warming that occur as a result of the emission of gases that many companies are sending to the environment. This has caused that the so-called greenhouse effect occasions droughts and excessive rains.
In Peru, many thaws and landslides have been occurring. Some tourist centers in our mountains are now for memories and photographs. Various landscapes that attracted many tourists no longer exist.
And how does all of this relate to microfinance? Of many ways. In Peru, the microfinance industry plays a social role and is one of the tools to reduce poverty, as it offers a better quality of life to entrepreneurs who, due to lack of money, cannot carry out micro-business activities.
From this perspective, the microfinance industry, by improving people's lives, formalizes them in business, but also allows them to change their lifestyle. For example, entrepreneurs in the mountains stop cutting trees to turn them into firewood; some leave illegal logging when formalized as legal companies; others use best business practices that respect the environment; and there are those who, with more training, learn to save water in micro-business activities; among other activities.
Despite the efforts of the Ministry of the Environment and the work being carried out by some non-governmental institutions, there is still much to be done on this issue, considered to be the great absentee in the pending future agenda for the coming years.
The microfinance industry, as long as it is a social tool, is also a potential factor in reducing the negative impacts of climate change. Let us not forget that the globalization process that the world is undergoing also means that Peru begins to reflect on these issues that are of vital importance in the industrialized world.
Furthermore, one of the aspects that good corporate governance suggests for microfinance companies is related to good practices of respect for the environment. It is no longer a matter of initiatives by NGOs, government, companies, universities, the media and society in general, but rather by all the levels that make up society. The issues related to climate change are also tasks for everyone, and in this case, for humanity.
