SUBSIDY WATCH BLOG

There’s no question that abandoning fossil fuel subsidies will benefit the economy and the planet, but as protests in Ecuador show, reforms require careful design and considerate execution in order to look after the vulnerable and get citizens on board.

Imagine driving into a gas station to fill up your car’s gas tank and seeing this stark notice affixed to the pump: “Warning: Burning fossil fuels kills.”

September 2019 marked ten years since the Group of 20 (G20) committed to “Rationalize and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption” as part of the Pittsburgh Summit in 2009. Very little has changed since then...

Energy challenges are similar across the world. Fortunately, so are the solutions. In many cases, subsidy reform and energy efficiency are closely linked and mutually supportive.

A new report provides the first internationally agreed-upon methodology that will help UN countries increase transparency on fossil fuel subsidies.

Our oceans and fish stocks—and the populations that depend on them—all suffer from the consequences of overfishing. The time has come for concrete actions.

Between 2015 and 2018, 50 countries undertook some level of fossil fuel subsidy reform. However, the International Energy Agency (IEA) found that consumer subsidies increased slightly in 2017.

Workers at the Hendrina coal power station in Mpumalanga, South Africa, are unsure if they will soon be joining the former workers at the nearby Optimum coal plant, protesting outside a shuttered plant.

Millions of dollars worth of fossil fuel subsidies could be better targeted by governments to benefit poor women including energy subsidies and policies.

How can lessons from India and China help Indonesia save millions of lives?

Many countries are leading the way and along with the private sector: several organizations shared stories and actions for success at the recent United Nations climate change talks in Katowice, Poland.

The message is clear.

Despite growing agreement on the negative impact of fossil fuel subsidies on the climate and socioeconomic issues, subsidies continue to be handed out by governments around the world. To understand this implementation gap, we must learn more about the political factors favoring and blocking fossil fuel subsidy reform. Our research shows that a more holistic framing of fossil fuel subsidy reform that goes beyond environmental concerns could help garnering broader societal support.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 calls upon the global community to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. The High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in New York noted progress, but also established that the world is still not on track to reach the targets on energy access, energy efficiency and renewable energies.