The politics of fossil fuel subsidies and their reform: Implications for climate change mitigation

Abstract

The production and consumption of fossil fuels need to decrease significantly to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement's ambitious climate change goals. However, fossil fuels continue to receive significant amounts of government support. Although reforming fossil fuel subsidies can yield climate change mitigation benefits, the specific international and domestic political context and political economy of fossil fuel subsidies means that such reform is not straightforward and may not be aligned with traditional climate politics. Our objective in this review article is to examine the implications of the politics of fossil fuel subsidies and their reform for climate change mitigation. The first step of examining these implications is to review existing studies on the size and impacts of global fossil fuel subsidies. Subsequently, we discuss the international politics of fossil fuel subsidies, including the emerging norm of fossil fuel subsidy reform, and the respective roles played by the international climate regime and several international economic institutions. Finally, we examine why fossil fuel subsidies are introduced and maintained at the domestic level, how fossil fuel subsidy reform has functioned in practice, and whether and how such reform could be conceived as an instrument for climate policy. This article is categorized under: The Carbon Economy and Climate Mitigation > Policies, Instruments, Lifestyles, Behavior Policy and Governance > Private Governance of Climate Change

Photocatalytic Activity of Silver-Based Biomimetics Composites

“…During the last decade, there has been a significant increase in discussions related to the production of energy from renewable sources [ 1 , 2 ]. This is mainly due to the increase in global temperatures and climate change, caused by the burning of fossil fuels and release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) [ 2 ]. For this reason, countless efforts around the world have focused on developing technologies that allow the production of energy from renewable sources in a cost-effective way.…”

The Plant a Trillion Trees Campaign to Reduce Global Warming – Fleshing Out the Concept

“…The USA Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized a social cost from FF emissions (EPA, 2018) that can readily be incorporated into environmental policy to reduce FF emissions. Substantial subsidies for FF are inherently reflected in a lower cost for FF than other energy sources (Skovgaard & Van Asselt, 2019), discouraging the advancement of Carbon Negative Technologies. These subsidies are counterproductive to the objective of reducing CO 2 emissions and the development of better Carbon Negative Technologies.…”

“…There are recognized social costs from FF emissions (EPA, 2018) that have not been incorporated into environmental policy -e.g., health, global warming, and oil spills. These social costs subsidize FF costs and so create a lower cost for FF than other energy sources (Skovgaard & Van Asselt, 2019). Even indirect FF subsidies such as the recent Iraqi wars (Oliver & Oliver, 2018;SIPRI -Sipri Military Expenditure Database, 2015) and U.S.A. Navy ships protecting FF tankers passing through the Straits of Hormuz are not reflected in FF costs.…”

The Performance of the Climate-Energy Nexus

“…Another example of the need for stronger cross-area coordination is the importance of integrating fossil fuel subsidy reform within the UNFCCC (Skovgaard and van Asselt 2019). Moreover, in a broader sense of sharing experiences and spreading knowledge, institutions within the three subfields need to reach out to sectors and institutions beyond the climate-energy nexus.…”