Stopping Trillions In Subsidies To The Fossil Fuel Industry Is Key To Climate Action

According to the International Monetary Fund, in 2022 <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2023/08/24/fossil-fuel-subsidies-surged-to-record-7-trillion" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">direct subsidies for the fossil fuel industry rose to US$1.3 trillion</a>. In previous years, the industry averaged profits of $1.5 trillion, but last year their <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-gas-industry-earned-4-trillion-last-year-says-iea-chief-2023-02-14/#:~:text=OSLO%2C%20Feb%2014%20(Reuters),Fatih%20Birol%2C%20said%20on%20Tuesday." rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">global profits were $4 trillion</a>, per the International Energy Agency. Also last year, global greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from burning fossil fuels, <a href="https://www.iea.org/news/global-co2-emissions-rose-less-than-initially-feared-in-2022-as-clean-energy-growth-offset-much-of-the-impact-of-greater-coal-and-oil-use" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">went up by almost a percent</a>, also per the IEA. Why, in a year when the industry was making record profits were governments giving them even more money? After all, the governments are expected to work on behalf of their citizens, and the IMF pegs the industry’s indirect subsidies due to the strong negative impacts of pollution and climate change at $5.7 trillion, 6% of the world’s gross domestic product. <a href="https://medium.com/the-future-is-electric/stopping-trillions-in-subsidies-to-the-fossil-fuel-industry-is-key-to-climate-action-2e8ec5385879">Visit Now</a>