Europe spends €112 billion per year on fossil fuels despite Phase-out plans

The European Governments and EU are subsidising €112 billion each year for the production and consumption of fossil fuels, claims a new report from the Overseas Development Institute and Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe – violating the Paris Agreement’s phase-out plan 2020. The report, Phase-Out 2020: Monitoring Europe’s fossil fuel subsidies (PH20202) gathered the information from 11 European countries between 2014 – 2016.
September 29, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

The European Governments and EU are subsidising €112 billion each year for the production and consumption of fossil fuels, claims a new report from the Overseas Development Institute and Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe – violating the Paris Agreement’s phase-out plan 2020.

The report, Phase-Out 2020: Monitoring Europe’s fossil fuel subsidies (PH20202) gathered the information from 11 European countries between 2014 – 2016. It revealed the transport sector as the main beneficiary, with more than €49 billion used to support fossil fuels, including tax breaks to reduce the price of diesel.

PH2020 also found that the EU provided an annual average of €4 billion in fossil fuel subsidies through its budget, development and investment banks and funds.

Wendel Trio, director of CAN Europe, said: “The €4bn spent by the EU on fossil fuels, most of which goes to gas infrastructure, locks Europe into fossil fuel dependency for the decades to come. This violates the Paris Agreement’s requirement to make finances work for the climate.”

Other findings include industry and business benefitted just under €15 billion per year and subsidies for fossil fuel exploration in the UK, and France shows €253 million per year in public finance between 2014 – 2016 on finding new resources between 2014 – 2016. 

The report makes a series of recommendations urging European governments to lead the G7 and G20 by their commitment to phasing out fossil fuels by 2020. It also proposes an annual reporting scheme with increased transparency, ensuring energy transitions do not support fossil fuel production and; targeting any remaining subsidies to supporting works and communities to move away from fossil fuels.

Classification & Data Collection

Related Content

  • Fluor: here's how to fix US infrastructure
    June 14, 2018
    US president Donald Trump’s comments about the country’s ‘crumbling infrastructure’ led many in the ITS sector to spot an opportunity to help with other solutions. David Seaton of Fluor ponders the scale of what’s required and considers some projects which have boosted mobility We can no longer wait for future generations to address this nation’s crumbling infrastructure. We need to act now. The problem is substantial, to say the least. The American Society of Civil Engineers predicts that failing to clo
    Read More
  • Government targets ‘too conservative’ as 1 in 5 plan to embrace electric cars
    July 20, 2017
    Electric vehicle uptake may increase over the next few years to levels far above UK Government targets. In research undertaken by Baringa Partners, nearly a fifth of people said they would consider buying an electric vehicle for their next car, double the Government goal for electric cars to make up nine per cent of the fleet by 2020. However, concerns over purchase price and range mean nearly a third of people believe electric cars will never overtake petrol and diesel vehicles. Baringa is urging the Gover
    Read More
  • Creating foundations for European MaaS model
    February 26, 2021
    Public transport is backbone of Mobility as a Service in Europe, says Piia Karjalainen
    Read More
  • Amsterdam Group turn ITS theory into practice
    August 6, 2013
    ASECAP’s Marko Jandrisits discusses the Amsterdam Group’s efforts to bring a sense of order to cooperative ITS deployments. When an issue arises which is deemed to require a technological solution governments and public-sector agencies around the world all too often tread the same sorry path. A decision is made to research and develop said technology to the production-ready stage, the work is done and the technology realised but then the money for deployment runs out and the technology is left on the shelf
    Read More

Highlighted Content