Fossil Fuel Subsidies Vastly Exceed Climate Finance
The G7 + Australia spend 40 times more public money on fossil fuel subsidies than they have pledged to the Green Climate Fund thus far, according to research by the NGO Oil Change International (OCI) published last week during the climate conference in Paris.
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia spend $80 billion (€73.5bn) annually on fossil fuel subsidies while their pledges to the Gree...
The G7 + Australia spend 40 times more public money on fossil fuel subsidies than they have pledged to the Green Climate Fund thus far, according to research by the NGO Oil Change International (OCI) published last week during the climate conference in Paris.
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia spend $80 billion (€73.5bn) annually on fossil fuel subsidies while their pledges to the Green Climate Fund amount to only $2 billion (€1.8bn).
Source: OCI. *
The annual fossil fuel production subsidies include the annual average of national subsidies and public finance for fossil fuel production between 2013 and 2014. The figures are taken from an earlier publication Empty Promises by OCI and the Overseas Development Institute that found governments of G20 countries subsidize fossil fuels with $452 billion a year.
A similar comparison for the EU and its member states shows that here too funding is skewed in favour of fossil fuel subsidies. In 2011 subsidies stood at €60 billion while climate funding received little under €10 billion in 2013, according to a report by Climate Action Network Europe released in September 2015.
*Total amount of GCF pledge divided by four, using the assumption that a replenishment of the GCF will be completed within four years of the original pledges (although there is no fixed replenishment schedule, and replenishment is triggered by a certain portion). The GCF replenishment process is triggered when cumulative funding approvals of the GCF exceed 60 per cent of the total contributions received during the Initial Resource Mobilization period. Data on GCF pledges from “Green Climate Fund. Status of Pledges and Contributions made to the Green Climate Fund: 2 November 2015.” Available at www.greenclimate.fund/contributions/pledge-tracker.
Image by epSos.de. CC-BY licence.
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia spend $80 billion (€73.5bn) annually on fossil fuel subsidies while their pledges to the Green Climate Fund amount to only $2 billion (€1.8bn).
Source: OCI. *
The annual fossil fuel production subsidies include the annual average of national subsidies and public finance for fossil fuel production between 2013 and 2014. The figures are taken from an earlier publication Empty Promises by OCI and the Overseas Development Institute that found governments of G20 countries subsidize fossil fuels with $452 billion a year.
EU spending on fossil fuel subsidies
A similar comparison for the EU and its member states shows that here too funding is skewed in favour of fossil fuel subsidies. In 2011 subsidies stood at €60 billion while climate funding received little under €10 billion in 2013, according to a report by Climate Action Network Europe released in September 2015.
*Total amount of GCF pledge divided by four, using the assumption that a replenishment of the GCF will be completed within four years of the original pledges (although there is no fixed replenishment schedule, and replenishment is triggered by a certain portion). The GCF replenishment process is triggered when cumulative funding approvals of the GCF exceed 60 per cent of the total contributions received during the Initial Resource Mobilization period. Data on GCF pledges from “Green Climate Fund. Status of Pledges and Contributions made to the Green Climate Fund: 2 November 2015.” Available at www.greenclimate.fund/contributions/pledge-tracker.
Image by epSos.de. CC-BY licence.
