{"id":13161,"date":"2015-05-19T03:55:20","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T07:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=13161"},"modified":"2015-05-19T15:48:41","modified_gmt":"2015-05-19T19:48:41","slug":"fossil-fuel-subsidies-6-of-world-gdp-more-than-all-govt-health-care-spending-in-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/fossil-fuel-subsidies-6-of-world-gdp-more-than-all-govt-health-care-spending-in-world.html","title":{"rendered":"Fossil fuel subsidies 6% of world GDP: more than all govt health care spending in world"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nEnd fossil fuel subsidies and cut CO2 emissions by 20%,\r\nalso removing any need for renewable energy subsidies.\r\n

\r\n\r\nFossil fuels subsidised by $10m a minute, says IMF:\r\n‘Shocking’\r\nrevelation finds $5.3tn subsidy estimate for 2015 is greater than the total health spending of all the world’s governments<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"300x251<\/a>\r\nFossil fuel companies are benefitting from global subsidies of\r\n$5.3tn (\u00a33.4tn) a year, equivalent to $10m a minute every day,\r\naccording to a startling\r\n\r\nnew estimate by the International Monetary Fund<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe IMF calls the revelation “shocking” and says the\r\nfigure is an “extremely robust” estimate of the true\r\ncost of fossil fuels. The $5.3tn subsidy estimated for 2015 is\r\ngreater than the total health spending of all the world’s\r\ngovernments.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe vast sum is largely due to polluters not paying the costs\r\nimposed on governments by the burning of coal, oil and gas. These\r\ninclude\r\n\r\n the harm caused to local populations by air pollution as\r\nwell as to people across the globe affected by the floods, droughts\r\nand storms being driven by climate change.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\ufffc US taxpayers subsidising world’s biggest fossil fuel companies \r\nRead more Nicholas Stern, an eminent climate economist at the London\r\nSchool of Economics, said: “This very important analysis\r\nshatters the myth that fossil fuels are cheap by showing just how\r\nhuge their real costs are. There is no justification for these\r\nenormous subsidies for fossil fuels, which distort markets and\r\ndamages economies, particularly in poorer countries.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nLord Stern said that even the IMF’s vast subsidy figure was a\r\nsignificant underestimate: “A more complete estimate of the\r\ncosts due to climate change would show the implicit subsidies for\r\nfossil fuels are much bigger even than this report suggests.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe IMF, one of the world’s most respected financial institutions,\r\nsaid that ending subsidies for fossil fuels would cut global carbon\r\nemissions by 20%. That would be a giant step towards taming global\r\nwarming….\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThat seems like a far better idea than handing many of the same\r\nsubsidized trans-national corporations more power via the\r\nTrans-Pacific Partnership and TAFTA.\r\n

\r\nThe calculations in this IMF working paper don’t even include\r\nsubsidies in the form of forced pipeline easements from private\r\nproperty owners.\r\nYet fossil fuel subsidies account for 6% of world GDP.\r\n

\r\nEnd fossil fuel subsidies and the whole world will profit\r\nby fixing climate change, and not just in money.\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"End fossil fuel subsidies and cut CO2 emissions by 20%, also removing any need for renewable energy subsidies. Fossil fuels subsidised by $10m a minute, says IMF: ‘Shocking’ revelation finds $5.3tn subsidy estimate for 2015 is greater than the total health spending of all the world’s governments, Fossil fuel companies are benefitting from global subsidies […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[141,216,14,16,6124,559,32],"tags":[8745,8753,8704,8706,3787,8701,8702,12,7,562,8782,8715,396,6],"class_list":["post-13161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-co2","category-coal","category-economy","category-environment","category-natural-gas-2","category-oil","category-pollution","tag-co2","tag-coal","tag-economy","tag-environment","tag-fossil-fuel","tag-georgia","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-natural-gas","tag-oil","tag-pollution","tag-subsidies","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-3qh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13161"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13187,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13161\/revisions\/13187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}