G7 nations spend US$100b on fossil fuels
Print Edition
THE world’s major industrial countries spend at least US$100 billion each year to prop up oil, gas and coal consumption, despite vows to end fossil fuel subsidies by 2025, a report released ahead of the G7 summit in Canada suggested.
Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — known as the Group of Seven — pledged in 2016 to phase out their support for fossil fuels by 2025.
But a study led by Britain’s Overseas Development Institute found they spent at least US$100 billion a year to support fossil fuels at home and abroad in 2015 and 2016.
“Governments often say they have no public resources to support the clean energy transition,” the study’s lead author Shelagh Whitley said.
“What we’re trying to do is highlight that those resources are there (but) it is being used inefficiently.
“The G7 have pledged to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, but they don’t have any systems in terms of accountability to meet the pledges — they don’t have roadmaps or plans,” added Whitley, head of the ODI’s climate division.
Researchers scrutinized and scored each country against indicators such as transparency, pledges and commitments, as well as their progress toward ending the use, support and production of fossil fuels.
France was ranked the highest overall, scoring 63 out of 100 points, followed by Germany (62), Canada (54) and the UK (47), the report said.
The US scored lowest with 42 out of 100 points due to its support for fossil fuel production and its withdrawal from a 2015 global pact to fight climate change.
The 2015 Paris agreement committed nations to curbing greenhouse emissions and keeping the global hike in temperatures “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.
Britain scored the lowest on transparency for denying that its government provided fossil fuel subsidies, even though it supported tax breaks for North Sea oil and gas exploration, the report said.
“We do not subsidize the production or consumption of fossil fuels,” a spokesman from Britain’s treasury said.
“We are supporting other countries in phasing out their own fossil fuel subsidies, as part of our commitment to the G20 and G7 pledges.”
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