Northern Ireland is a small business economy - 99.9% of businesses are SMEs. To this end, small businesses are a key consideration in almost any government initiative, let alone one of this scale and importance. In the same way we should always aim to create ‘ideal’ conditions for small businesses to start and thrive, we must ensure the methods we deploy in helping the environment to repair itself are based around a set of principles that protect and enable small businesses to play their part. Such principles acknowledge there are a number of different paths we can take to reach Net-Zero – based on political will or emerging evidence – and so they act as a ‘checklist’ to ensure we get there while protecting and accelerating economic opportunity. In other words, harnessing opportunity whilst doing the right thing.
