"Subsidies for fossil fuels are much bigger even than this report suggests"
Fossil fuel companies are benefitting from global subsidies of $5.3tn (£3.4tn) a year, equivalent to $10m every minute of every day, according to a startling new estimate by the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF calls the revelation “shocking” and says the figure is an “extremely robust” estimate of the true cost of fossil fuels. The $5.3tn subsidy estimated for 2015 is greater than the total health spending of all the world’s governments.
The vast sum is largely due to polluters not paying the costs imposed on governments by the burning of coal, oil and gas. These include the harm caused to local populations by air pollution as well as to people across the globe affected by the floods, droughts and storms being driven by climate change.
Lord Nicholas Stern, an eminent climate economist at the London School of Economics, said: “This very important analysis shatters the myth that fossil fuels are cheap by showing just how huge their real costs are. There is no justification for these enormous subsidies for fossil fuels, which distort markets and damages economies, particularly in poorer countries.
Stern said that even the IMF’s vast subsidy figure was a significant underestimate: “A more complete estimate of the costs due to climate change would show the implicit subsidies for fossil fuels are much bigger even than this report suggests.”
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5 comments:
I call B.S.
"...not paying the costs imposed on governments by the burning of coal, oil and gas. These include the harm caused to local populations by air pollution as well as to people across the globe affected by the floods, droughts and storms being driven by climate change."
A. Unproven.
B. Unquantifiable.
C. It's The Guardian - climate alarm central.
Al Gore was on to something.
4:10. Go for it Cleopatra. Another trip down deNile.
"Alternative" Energy companies receive subsidies that, on a per kwh basis, is more than 3,000:1, compared to "fossil fuel" companies. The difference being, one can survive without the gov't $$$, the other can't.
No matter what some agency may say a SUBSIDY is when you give money to someone, not when you tax them at a lower rate than you could. If the government lets them get away with polluting then the government is failing us in there oversight responsibilities. Must be time to get a new government.
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