The world's major industrialized countries, known as the G7, provide at least $100 billion a year supporting fossil fuels despite repeated pledges to phase out related subsidies since 2009, a report by Britain's Overseas Development Institute revealed Monday.
"With less than seven years to meet their 2025 phase-out deadline, G7 governments continue to provide substantial support for the production and use of oil, gas and coal," the authors said in a briefing paper.
This may hinder or delay a shift away from production and consumption of fossil fuels, they added.
"On average per year in 2015 and 2016, the G7 governments gave at least $81 billion in fiscal support and $20 billion in public finance, for both production and consumption of oil, gas and coal at home and overseas," the paper said.
Despite their numerous commitments since 2009 under the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement, not only have G7 governments taken limited action to address fossil fuel subsidies, but they have also failed to put in place any mechanisms to define and document the full extent of their support to oil, gas and coal, or to hold themselves accountable for achieving these pledges, according to the authors of the study.
"The G7 fossil fuel subsidy scorecard aims to address this accountability gap and track, for the first time, each G7 country’s progress in phasing out fossil fuel subsidies across seven indicators," they said.
According to the scorecard, France is leading the group making early progress in ending support of fossil fuels, scoring 63 out of 100 points. Germany is right behind with 62.
Canada ranked third scoring 54, followed by the U.K. with 47. Italy was rated 46, Japan scored 44 and the U.S. was rated 42.
According to the report, France spends $8 billion a year subsidizing fossil fuels, despite leading in phasing out support for fossil fuel exploration.
Germany is the most transparent about the scale of its fossil fuel subsidies, however, it is lagging behind in ending support, spending $18 billion a year to subsidize fossil fuel-based power.
Canada leads in ending support for fossil fuels; with expenditure of just over $4 billion a year on related subsidies, yet, scores worst in cutting support for oil and gas production.
The amount spent by the U.K. in support of fossil fuels is more than $11 billion, according to the report, which said that although the country is leading in pledges to end fossil fuel subsidies, it denies providing support, making it the least transparent.
Italy spends over $17 billion a year propping up fossil fuels, the authors added, noting the country leads in phasing out support for coal mining, but scores the worst when it comes to ending support for fossil fuel use.
Japan spends over $12 billion a year despite making progress in phasing out support, and scores the worst in ending support for fossil fuel exploration.
Out of the seven nations, the U.S. spends the most on fossil fuel subsidies, forking over $26 billion a year, the report showed.
Despite leading in phasing out support for fossil fuel use, the U.S. scores the worst in ending support for coal mining, it said.
By Hale Turkes
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr
