Fossil fuel subsidies amount to hundreds of billions of dollars a year – here’s how to get rid of them
Any feasible pathway out of the climate crisis involves dramatically lowering our consumption of fossil fuels. It’s astonishing, then, that many countries not only don’t reflect the damage caused by burning fossil fuels in the taxes imposed on them, but actively subsidise their extraction and use. Despite an agreement at the G20 in 2009 to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, the US, China and Russia alone spent US$909 billion (£656 billion) on them in 2017, the most recent year available – that’s nearly 40% more than in 2009.
Subsidies exist when fossil fuel prices fail to reflect their true costs, including how much pollution they cause. This encourages us to use more of them. Emissions from burning fossil fuels were responsible for one in five premature deaths in 2018, but the IMF has estimated that raising the price of fossil fuels to fully reflect their wider social costs could cut this number in half.
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Atlantis Viewpoint
Not only are many countries not reflecting the damage caused by burning fossil fuels in the taxes that they impose, but they are actively subsidising their extraction and use.
We cannot believe so much money is still being put in to a fuel which is not only damaging to our health and our planet but also is not economically viable. If we have to spend money to support an energy supply this should all go to True Clean Energy options. People will benefit twice, from an increase of the air quality and health and a more protected plant for the future.
Many other countries, such as Indonesia, have already taken the correct step, and removed subsidies for petrol in exchange of free healthcare or schooling. The world needs more commitment from government to direct funding and subsides to where it will benefit the public and the world.
