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posted by martyb on Wednesday June 10 2020, @07:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the how-many-electric-cars-would-that-buy? dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Climate crisis notwithstanding, governments subsidised fossil fuels in 2019 to the tune of nearly half-a-trillion dollars, two intergovernmental agencies have jointly reported.

Subsidies for fossil fuel consumption alone declined $120 billion, or 27 percent, compared to 2018 due mainly to lower oil and gas prices, according to International Energy Agency (IEA) figures.

Governments that heavily support the use of oil and gas include Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Indonesia, Egypt, India and Venezuela.

At the same time, subsidies for fossil fuel production—in the form of cash, tax breaks and other credits—increased across 44 rich and emerging economies in 2019 by 38 percent to $55 billion, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reported.

Combined subsidies for both consumption and production last year totalled $478 billion in 77 economies, an 18 percent drop compared to the year before, the IEA and OECD said in a joint statement, released at the end of last week.

"The fiscal burden of subsidies means that fewer resources can be potentially devoted to other public funding, be it for clean-energy research, innovation or to strengthen social safety nets," Nathalie Girouard, head of the OECD's environmental performance and information division, told AFP.


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2020, @08:48AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2020, @08:48AM (#1005732)

    You can buy Australian LGP in Japan cheaper than in Australia. Almost worth importing to sell for a profit.
    Coal is sold to India for a price that is scandalous. Mining is a job for many, but what they don't see or perhaps care is that their country is selling off limited resources cheaply.

    IT people tend to learn the concept of resource value and scarcity playing RTS games like Command and Conquer that depend on obtaining resources to build bigger so when the end comes your side can defend itself. Having played through the point where resources become rare and skirmishes become expensive due to dwindling resources we can see what happens in the real world.

    Look at the islands who no longer have phosphate to sell.

    These people who sell off our natural assets probably won't live to see the result of their greed. Their children may end up paying the price.

    If Australia has 400 years worth of LPG, why is it all being extracted and sold off now instead of being used by Australia for generations?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2020, @09:12AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2020, @09:12AM (#1005734)

    They can totally see the result of their greed: their account balances going up and up. Or did you think they actually cared about anything else?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2020, @02:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 10 2020, @02:55PM (#1005819)