G20 governments propping up fossil fuel exploration

[Oscar]

Throwing bad money after bad

Rich countries are still wasting billions on subsidies for fossil fuels

[ http://grist.org/climate-energy/rich-co ... gn=climate ]

By David Roberts 11 Nov 2014

Five years ago, at one of their annual meetings, the G20 countries — the biggest economies in the world — pledged to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.

So naturally, today, the G20 countries are spending $88 billion a year subsidizing exploration for new fossil fuels. Sigh.

That’s the I-wish-it-were-more-shocking conclusion of a new report from the Overseas Development Institute and Oil Change International. [ http://www.odi.org/g20-fossil-fuel-subsidies ]

Keep in mind, that isn’t all the fossil fuel subsidies — not even close. “Globally, subsidies for the production and use of fossil fuels were estimated at $775 billion in 2012,” says the report. (“By contrast, subsidies for renewable energy amounted to just $101 billion in 2013.”) The new report is specifically about subsidies devoted to finding new fossil fuels, beyond the stuff we already have, which is enough to fry the planet thrice over.

Those subsidies come in three basic forms: investment by state-owned enterprises, direct national subsidies and tax breaks, and public finance.

MORE:

[ http://grist.org/climate-energy/rich-co ... gn=climate ]


= = = = =

G20 governments propping up fossil fuel exploration

[ http://www.odi.org/g20-fossil-fuel-subsidies ]

The G20 pledged to phase out 'inefficient' fossil fuel subsidies in 2009, yet new research finds that governments are spending $88 billion every year supporting exploration – more than double what the oil and gas companies are investing.

Read the full report:

The fossil fuel bailout: G20 subsidies for oil, gas and coal exploration
[ http://www.odi.org/publications/8678-fo ... xploration ]

Publication - November 2014

Elizabeth Bast, Shakuntala Makhijani, Sam Pickard, and Shelagh Whitley

Governments across the G20 countries are estimated to be spending $88 billion every year subsidising exploration for fossil fuels. This report documents, for the first time, the scale and structure of fossil-fuel exploration subsidies in the G20 countries. The evidence points to a publicly financed bailout for carbon-intensive companies, and support for uneconomic investments that could drive the planet far beyond the internationally agreed target of limiting global temperature increases to no more than 2ºC.