Energy Subsidies - International

Government negotiators are meeting in Bonn for climate talks this week (1-11 June 2015), to prepare for negotiations in Paris towards a climate deal at the end of the year. At the time of writing 39 countries have submitted their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions or INDCs.

It is ever clearer that fossil fuel subsidies are detrimental to sustainable development. However, in a time of historic low oil prices, the gap between international oil prices and consumer energy prices has narrowed dramatically, thus offering countries a huge window of opportunity to phase-out these subsidies. For this and many other reasons, the elimination of these subsidies continue to make global headlines.

The elimination of fossil-fuel subsidies would make a significant contribution to this shared objective.

Despite slow but solid progress at the climate change negotiations in Lima, the Conference of Parties this year nonetheless saw promising discussions around national efforts to tackle climate change on-the-ground. This includes increasing calls in the last month to realize opportunities stemming from the removal of US$ 550 billion of subsidies to fossil fuels.

In this paper the Global Subsidies Initiative presents a more complete examination of how fossil-fuel subsidies can impact the deployment of renewable energy. The paper discusses the effect of fossil-fuel subsidies on the cost competiveness of renewables, the incumbent advantage of fossil-fuel-powered generators and the distortion of investment decisions.

‘100% renewables by 2050’ was the driving theme of the Academy REN21 held in Bonn 10-12 November 2014 to celebrate its 10 years driving networks to promote the deployment of renewable energy. Speakers—including Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Christine Lins, Executive Secretary of REN21—noted how the amount of renewables now deployed to generate electricity was far in excess of projections made in 2004 when REN21 was set up.  A straw poll of the 180 delegates showed a clear majority who believed that 100% Renewables by 2050 was achievable. This is now the focus of a number of campaigns, for example the “Go 100% Renewables Campaign”. Speakers remarked how quickly this concept and target had moved into the mainstream.