Stopping Trillions In Subsidies To The Fossil Fuel Industry Is Key To Climate Action
Pro tip: both carbon capture and hydrogen for energy funding are almost entirely fossil fuel industry subsidies by another name
According to the International Monetary Fund, in 2022 direct subsidies for the fossil fuel industry rose to US$1.3 trillion. In previous years, the industry averaged profits of $1.5 trillion, but last year their global profits were $4 trillion, per the International Energy Agency. Also last year, global greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from burning fossil fuels, went up by almost a percent, also per the IEA.
Why, in a year when the industry was making record profits were governments giving them even more money? After all, the governments are expected to work on behalf of their citizens, and the IMF pegs the industry’s indirect subsidies due to the strong negative impacts of pollution and climate change at $5.7 trillion, 6% of the world’s gross domestic product.
In 2009 the G20 committed to ending subsidies for fossil fuels. Since then global subsidies have increased, along with emissions. This governmental largesse for the fossil fuel industry is a primary source of its profits, and a primary cause of continued greenhouse gas emissions.
