News & Events

On 9 November, Ottawa's Globe and Mail reported that companies engaged in extracting Canada's oil sands were calling for state aid to help them adopt carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS) technology. A report, Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage: A Canadian Clean Energy Opportunity, released by the Integrated CO2 Network (ICO2N), which represents Canada's major oil companies and coal-based utilities, makes its claim on environmental and economic grounds.

A government briefing note recently accessed under freedom-of-information law concludes that Canada’s flex-fuel subsidization scheme is not in the interest of the environment. The problem is the same as in the USA’s ‘dual-fuel scam’. The government has been giving rebates to consumers who purchase of ‘flex-fuel’ vehicles – cars which can run on normal gasoline or on E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline.

According to the Associated Press, an energy expert with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, Michel Fuchs, has announced that the next German government will consider reducing subsidies to solar energy producers, perhaps as early as 2010. Apparently, the most successful technologies are those which will see the greatest reduction in support.

On Sunday 18th October, the Iranian government passed a bill that would cut energy subsidies, claiming that this would be necessary to make Iran less vulnerable to international sanctions. This is not the first time Iran has tried to reform its fossil-fuel subsidies, with previous attempts ending in failure after public protest.

Another dispute brewing this summer concerns U.S. export subsidies to milk which were reintroduced in May 2009, following a similar move by the European Union in January. The U.S. and the EU have argued that they will not exceed their WTO commitments on export subsidies; nonetheless, the subsidies have drawn criticism from the Cairns group of agriculture exporting countries.

On 4 September 2009 a WTO panel handed down an interim ruling in the long running dispute between the United States and the European Commission over so called “launch aid” in the form of soft loans to the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus.

A World Trade Organization (WTO) compliance panel has issued its decision authorizing Brazil to retaliate against the United States for failing to abide by previous WTO rulings which determined U.S. subsides to cotton illegal.

On 3 September 2009, the Jakarta Post newspaper announced the latest development in Indonesia’s long struggle with energy subsidization: spending will increase, again. Two decisions seem to have been made in close succession.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) is conducting a study on fossil fuel subsidies as part of its Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI). The GSI is dedicated to research and awareness building on government subsidies and their impacts on sustainable development. In cooperation with a growing international network of research and media partners, the GSI seeks to lay bare just what good or harm public subsidies are doing and to encourage public debate and awareness of the options that are available for reform.  IISD’s Trade Knowledge Network (TKN) is assisting with this call for proposals by reaching out to its partner organizations. TKN is a global collaboration of research institutions working on issues of trade, investment and sustainable development.