Resources

Energy subsidies receive a large share of government expenditure in Bangladesh.

In October 2011, the Centre d’Analyse Stratégique released a study Les aides publiques dommageables à la biodiversité – ‘Public incentives that harm biodiversity’ – that reviews general thinking on the relationship between biodiversity and subsidies, and applies them to France.

A new report outlines a strategy for reducing Indonesia’s fuel subsidies. Indonesia spent IDR164.7 trillion (US$18.1 billion) subsidizing fuel products in 2011, of which IDR76.5 trillion (US$8.4 billion) was spent subsidizing gasoline. Fuel subsidies place a huge burden on limited public resources and present a fiscal liability, vulnerable to increases in the international price of oil.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has released a report Energy Subsidies in the Arab World, reviewing the current state of fossil-fuel subsidies and efforts to reform them in seventeen Arab countries.

A new report provides a summary for decision-makers on how much money could be saved from fossil-fuel subsidy reform in 24 OECD countries.

The OECD and IEA recommend reforming fossil-fuel subsidies to improve the economy and the environment.

A draft paper by the World Bank recommends raising money to fight climate change by reducing subsidies for fossil fuels, putting a price tag of US$ 25 per tonne on carbon emissions and collecting a surcharge on aviation and shipping fuels, reports Bloomberg and The Guardian.

The GSI releases two papers reviewing the literature on subsidies to different energy technologies: in a paper on electricity generation, looking at fossil fuels, renewable energy and nuclear power; and in a paper on transport fuel, looking at fossil fuels and biofuels.

In mid-April, the Nuffield Council of Bioethics, an independent body that examines ethical issues in biology and medicine, launched the report Biofuels: ethical issues.

This March, investigative journalist Yuan Ying won the ‘most influential’ category at the China Environment Press Awards with an article on the failure of China’s photovoltaic (PV) subsidy program ‘Golden Sun’.