"Trillions of dollars a year are ‘adding fuel to the fire’ of the climate crisis, experts say"
"The fossil fuel industry benefits from subsidies of $11m every minute, according to analysis by the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF found the production and burning of coal, oil and gas was subsidised by $5.9tn in 2020, with not a single country pricing all its fuels sufficiently to reflect their full supply and environmental costs. Experts said the subsidies were “adding fuel to the fire” of the climate crisis, at a time when rapid reductions in carbon emissions were urgently needed.
Explicit subsidies that cut fuel prices accounted for 8% of the total and tax breaks another 6%. The biggest factors were failing to make polluters pay for the deaths and poor health caused by air pollution (42%) and for the heatwaves and other impacts of global heating (29%).
Setting fossil fuel prices that reflect their true cost would cut global CO2 emissions by over a third, the IMF analysts said. This would be a big step towards meeting the internationally agreed 1.5C target. Keeping this target within reach is a key goal of the UN Cop26 climate summit in November."
Damian Carrington reports for the Guardian October 6, 2021.
SEE ALSO:
"Fact Sheet | Fossil Fuel Subsidies: A Closer Look at Tax Breaks and Societal Costs" (EESI)
"Congress: Stop Subsidizing Fossil Fuel Pollution" (NRDC)
"Progressive Caucus Presses for End to Fossil Fuel Subsidies" (NRDC)
"House Ways & Means Committee Advances Egregious Fossil Fuel Subsidies" (Food & Water Watch)
