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{
    "id": 1517359,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1517359/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 279,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "I further support their proposal that there would be tax and fiscal incentives to boost investments in forest land use and utilization. If someone does good for the environment, let them get some benefit and let them get something in return for doing good. This would be the best justification for fiscal incentives because we are making investments that are going to last beyond generations. Many a times when we are talking about our finance bills and our fiscal policies, it is always about the increase in tax. The conversation on reliefs is not usually amplified. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I do hope that if Cabinet Secretary Mbadi was listening, this would be a very genius insertion into his fiscal plan and the Finance Bill that he would be bringing to Parliament. So that instead of starting his speech by saying that we are increasing Value Added Tax (VAT), the housing levy or we are increasing the social health, he would start his conversation by saying that we are giving an incentive to people who plant trees. We are giving incentives to corporates who as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have decided that they are going to reforest and ensure that our country's tree cover and forest cover is maintained and is optimized. This is because, corporates sometimes engage in CSRs that might not have very consequential long-term effects. I know a number of corporates have gone into the sports arena because it is in sports that there is visibility. I would have gone ahead and proposed that out of the resources we get from betting and gambling companies, a certain percentage should be ring-fenced and directed towards climate adaptation and climate mitigation activities. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, that industry is extremely liquid, not because it is exploitative, but because in our country, our young people have a gambling culture as a result of lack of opportunities. I believe that we could put a sin tax on gambling as we have done on tobacco. We could put a sin tax on alcohol, but direct it, not just to the overall budget support that we have done, but put a percentage to go to climate change activities. If the National Tree Planting Week is well coordinated and organized, I believe that if all primary schools, secondary schools and universities in this country knew three months in advance, or if it was put in the annual calendar of the nation; that on a certain day we are going to plant trees, it would be much more effective than a date being gazetted in an ambush fashion, as it was done in the last year. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when the Senate Leader of the Majority was making comments on this Bill yesterday, he challenged the Climate Change Caucus, which I have the privilege to lead, to do much more in terms of climate action. I do agree with the Senate Leader of the Majority that a lot of conversations around climate have existed in boardrooms, conferences and we have had conferences of parties. Right now, we are at Conference of Parties (COP) 28 going to COP 29, and yet whenever we go there, it turns out to be a talking shop. We come back without making substantive progress. Last year, when we went to Baku in Azerbaijan, African countries and the least developed countries wanted a new collective quantifiable goal on climate finance that would mobilize USD1.3 trillion for climate change adaptation and mitigation. It was"
}