Author: Marianne Lotz
Energy Review, Vol 5. Issue 02. 2023
Global public finances are at a crossroads: while multi-billion-dollar programs, such as the US-IRA, are set to push the clean energy transition to new heights, fossil subsidies are globally on the rise. Now is the time for their phase-out, as has long been agreed upon by the G7 and G20. The groups of the world’s largest economies must now play an incremental role in pushing forward the alignment of financial flows with the 1.5-degree limit by setting up mandatory and transparent reporting and supporting the implementation of compensation schemes for households at risk of energy poverty. The G20, this year headed by India, should push for a common and comprehensive definition of fossil fuel subsidies. In 2020, coal, oil and gas received $5.9 trillion in subsidies globally (IMF), most of them being health and environmental damages that were not priced into the cost of fossil fuels.
(Ms. Marianne Lotz is Policy Advisor, Climate and Energy, WWF Germany)
Global public finances are at a crossroads: while multi-billion-dollar programs, such as the US-IRA, are set to push the clean energy transition to new heights, fossil subsidies are globally on the rise. Now is the time for their phase-out, as has long been agreed upon by the G7 and G20. The groups of the world’s largest economies must now
play an incremental role in pushing forward the alignment of financial flows with the 1.5-degree limit by setting up mandatory and transparent reporting and supporting the implementation of compensation schemes for households at risk of energy poverty. The G20, this year headed by India, should push for a common and comprehensive definition of fossil fuel subsidies. In 2020, coal, oil and gas received $5.9 trillion in subsidies globally (IMF), most of them being health and environmental damages that were not priced into the cost of fossil fuels.
Ms. Marianne Lotz
Policy Advisor, Climate and Energy, WWF Germany
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