Hope on the horizon: Will the G-20 really start the final countdown on unsustainable energy subsidies?

Feature Commentary

Hope on the horizon: Will the G-20 really start the final countdown on unsustainable energy subsidies?
By Cees van Beers and André de Moor

For decades there has existed a community of researchers – spanning government ministries, international organisations, academia and civil society – working to increase the world’s understanding and awareness of environmentally perverse subsidies. Since September 2009, when the G-20 committed to phase out and rationalize inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that lead to wasteful consumption, much attention has turned to their efforts. In the run-up to the G-20’s Seoul Summit on 11?12 November, just over a year after reaching this agreement, Subsidy Watchcontacted Dr Cees van Beers and André de Moor, part of the subsidy research community during the 1990s, and asked for a retrospective: how far have we come and how far have we yet to go?

Also in this issue:

Commentary
How big are your fossil-fuel subsidies? An interview with the International Budget Partnership on transparency and the right to access information

This October, the International Budget Partnership (IBP), part of the U.S. non-profit organisation the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, published preliminary findings from the Ask Your Government! initiative, an ambitious research project to investigate what happens when citizens around the world ask their governments for specific budgetary information relating to key international development commitments – including the enquiry, “What was the total amount actually incurred during the past three fiscal years on subsidies for oil, gas and coal production and consumption?”

Some concerns on the fossil-fuel subsidies debate in the G-20
by Carlos Galperín, María Victoria Lottici and María Cecilia Pérez Llana

Energy subsidies are a long-debated issue as regards their efficacy, efficiency and relationship with the problem of climate change. These questions have been recently included on the agenda of the G-20, after the Leaders’ Summit held in Pittsburgh in September 2009. Paragraphs 29 and 31 of the Leaders’ Statement set forth a course of action for member countries. In those paragraphs, fossil-fuel subsidies are questioned on the grounds that they can be inefficient and encourage wasteful consumption, and it is therefore proposed to phase them out over the medium-term, while recognizing the importance of providing those in need with essential energy services.

However, the question of fossil-fuel subsidies is a very complex issue and from our perspective the way it is being discussed within the G-20 raises some concerns.