• GSI outreach: shaping the agenda for reform

    The GSI is committed to ongoing outreach to policy-makers and the global media, communicating our knowledge of fossil-fuel subsidies and best practice for successful reform.
     
    On 25 September 2009, the Leaders of the Group of Twenty (G-20) met in Pittsburgh, PA, and agreed to phase out fossil-fuel subsidies. The Global Subsidies Initiative is committed to ensuring that this process be as fair and transparent as possible, taking into account producer as well as consumer subsidies and implementing measures to secure the welfare of the poor.
     

    GSI outreach: shaping the agenda for reform

  • Kinds of subsidies, who uses them and how big they are

    Most governments around the world, rich and poor alike, encourage fossil fuel production or consumption with financial support. Globally, subsidies to fossil fuels may be on the order of US$ 500 billion per year, of which about US$ 100 billion is provided to producers.Nobody knows the real number, however, because there is no international framework for regularly monitoring fossil-fuel subsidies.

    Kinds of subsidies, who uses them and how big they are

  • Economic, social and environmental effects

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    The effects of fossil-fuel subsidy reform: a review of modelling and empirical studies 

    Subsidies are powerful instruments. When granted to fossil fuels, which are at the heart of all modern economies, subsidies have impacts throughout the economy, society and environment. When such impacts work against other government objectives, subsidies are often termed perverse.

    Economic, social and environmental effects

  • Political Economy

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    The Politics of Fossil-Fuel Subsidies 

    Reforming fossil-fuel subsidies is widely believed to be a “win-win” policy that would benefit energy security, economic growth and the environment, as evidenced by the G-20 commitment to phase out such subsidies. But subsidies are notoriously difficult to reform.

    Political Economy

  • Reform

    Many countries have tried to reform their fossil-fuel subsidies with varying degrees of success. Political opposition is fed by popular resentment to price increases, job losses and environmental impacts (if consumers switch to dirtier fuels). After reform there is the risk of backsliding or replacing one subsidy with another form of distorting support.

    Reform