In its report released this month, the International Energy Agency announced that there are $5 in fossil fuel subsidies spent for every $1 of “government support” spent for renewable energy. It went on to describe how getting rid of fossil fuel subsidies would increase energy security, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution and bring economic benefits. The Paris-based independent agency provides energy analysis to 28 industrialized nations, including the United States.
The report, “World Energy Outlook 2010” states: “Reforming inefficient energy subsidies would have a dramatic effect on supply and demand in global energy markets. We estimate that a universal phase-out of all fossil-fuel consumption subsidies by 2020—ambitious though it may be as an objective—would cut global primary energy demand by 5 percent. … Phasing out fossil-fuel consumption subsidies could represent an integral building block for tackling climate change: their complete removal would reduce CO2 emissions by 5.8 percent, or 2 Gt, in 2020.”
Find the report at www.worldenergyoutlook.org.