It was not a clean 2021, that of the G20 under the Italian presidency. Last year, the world’s 20 largest economies delivered fossil subsidies at unprecedented rates
Fossil subsidies grow 29% over 2020
(sustainabilityenvironment.com) – The performance of Italy was bad. It was not a clean 2021, that of the G20 under the Italian presidency. Last year, the world’s 20 largest economies delivered fossil subsidies at an unprecedented rate, peaking at $190 billion. An increase of 29% compared to 2020. Subsidies “continued to grow” even in 2022, partly “because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that rocketed energy prices, also increasing the profits of energy companies“.
This is calculated by the annual report on the G20 climate commitment to Climate Transparency, which devotes an overall overview of climate performance to the 20 countries. Warning Italy: the country is not on the trajectory for the 1.5 at C, at this rate in 2030 will emit twice the greenhouse gases it should.
To fossils more than 6 dollars out of 10
What is g20? The framework of the G20 climate commitment is bleak. Energy sector emissions rebounded by 5.9% after the year of the pandemic and exceeded pre-Covid levels. This development is largely physiological but accompanied by a lack of will to really change course. The data on fossil subsidies illustrate this well. The countries with the highest total fossil fuel subsidies were China, Indonesia and the UK.
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“Too much public funding for energy in the G20 is still geared towards the fossil fuel industry. 63% of the G20’s public energy funding went to fossil fuels in 2019-2020,” said Ipek Gençsü, the report’s chief financial officer.
“Last year, the G20 reaffirmed its commitment in 2009 to ‘phase out and rationalize inefficient fossil fuel subsidies over the medium term’, but I think we can safely say that we are now in that ‘medium term‘ and it is clear that the G20 has not kept its promise, instead continuing to use public funds to distort the market in favor of fossil fuels“, added Gençsü.
