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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/24/fossil-fuel-subsidies-imf-report-climate-crisis-oil-gas-coal>
"Fossil fuels benefited from record subsidies of $13m (£10.3m) a minute in
2022, according to the International Monetary Fund, despite being the primary
cause of the climate crisis.
The IMF analysis found the total subsidies for oil, gas and coal in 2022 were
$7tn (£5.5tn). That is equivalent to 7% of global GDP and almost double what
the world spends on education. Countries have pledged to phase out subsidies
for years to ensure the price of fossil fuels reflects their true environmental
costs, but have achieved little to date.
Explicit subsidies, which cut the price of fuels for consumers, doubled in 2022
as countries responded to the higher energy prices resulting from Russia’s war
in Ukraine. Rich households benefited far more from these than poor ones, the
IMF said. Implicit subsidies, which represent the “enormous” costs of the
damage caused by fossil fuels through climate change and air pollution, made up
80% of the total.
Ending the subsidies should be the centrepiece of climate action, the IMF said,
and would put the world on track to restrict global heating to below 2C, as
well as preventing 1.6 million air pollution deaths a year and increasing
government revenues by trillions of dollars. The researchers acknowledged that
subsidy reform was politically difficult, but said carefully designed policies
that supported poorer households could work, especially if coordinated
internationally.
The IMF’s findings come as the climate crisis wreaks havoc across the world,
from heatwaves, wildfires and floods from the Americas to Europe to Asia.
Cutting fossil fuel subsidies “needs to be the centrepiece of efforts over the
next few years to get on track with limiting global warming to below 2C”, said
Ian Parry of the IMF. “Ideally this is done through carbon pricing [and] some
of the revenues from reforms should be used to compensate poor and vulnerable
households.
“We are in this situation because it can be very difficult to increase taxes on
fossil fuels, not least when countries are acting unilaterally,” he said. “We
recommend that large emitting countries coordinate on carbon pricing or similar
policies to help scale up global action.”
Ipek Gençsü, a subsidies expert at the ODI thinktank, said: “The IMF report
shows that, at a time when the world is starting to experience worsening
impacts of climate change, governments continue to pour fuel on to the fire by
providing record levels of subsidies for fossil fuels.
“If we are to have any chance of avoiding irreversible and tragic consequences
of climate change, governments simply have to show bolder leadership, by
phasing out their support for production and consumption of fossil fuels.”"
Via Diane A.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
