Fossil-Fuel Subsidies and Climate Change: New report shows huge potential for lowering emissions

Every year governments spend $543 billion subsidising fossil-fuels to consumers. A new report on Fossil-Fuel Subsidies and Climate Change for the Nordic Council of Ministers from the IISD finds that removing these subsidies to consumers and society could lead to global GHG emissions reductions of between 6-13% by 2050.

With potential domestic savings to some government of between 5-30% of expenditures, and in the context of the low oil price many governments are removing subsidies. This report shows how to include national emissions reduction estimates within country contributions towards the UNFCCC using the Global Subsidies Initiative – Integrated Fiscal (GSI-IF) model.

The report has been written by Laura Merrill, Melissa Harris, Liesbeth Casier and Andrea M. Bassi for the International Institute for Sustainable Development as part of the Global Subsidies Initiative. It was presented alongside the Climate talks in Geneva on February 10.

Download the report Fossil-Fuel Subsidies and Climate Change:Options for policy-makers within their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions

The report is financed as part of the Nordic Prime Ministers’ green growth initiative. The first report in this project under the initiative was entitled Reform of Fossil-fuel Subsidies: Nordic Cooperation on fossil-fuel subsidy reform in developing countries - Assessing Options and Opportunities

Read more about the green growth initiative in the web magazine Green Growth the Nordic Way or follow us on facebook.