Skip to main content

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.

Related Content

  • March 16, 2016
    Revenue growth of 30 per cent forecast for connected car market in 2016
    According to research company Statista’s Digital Market Outlook (DMO), 2016 will see approximately 11 million connected cars in America, with almost 32 million intelligent cars on America’s streets by 2020. Worldwide the number of connected cars is forecast to rise to 160 million intelligent vehicles. Statista claims the main impact of the enormous growth of the market comes from the rapid development of new features and possibilities. The biggest segment however, according to the DMO, is not infotainmen
  • May 5, 2015
    Paris launches ambitious new cycling plan
    Paris has launched its 2015-2020 cycling strategy, which aims to double the length of the city's cycle network and triple the number of Parisians cycling every day. The strategy was developed with the input of almost 7,000 stakeholders in a consultation period from December 2014 to January 2015 aims to help deal with Paris's high air pollution and concentration of particulates, which caused heavy smog earlier this year and in spring 2015. A total of US$166 million has been allocated to realise the str
  • August 8, 2018
    Regulation time-lag will hit driverless technology hard says leading consultancy BDO
    The legislation surrounding driverless cars is lagging so far behind the technology involved that the industry is unlikely to see a regulatory framework in place any time soon says leading international business, finance and taxation consultancy BDO. And IEEE, "the world’s largest technical professional organisation dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity" can only see problems ahead as the politicians fall further and further behind. BDO has been looking at a report from www.Spectr
  • September 25, 2019
    New York to pump $51.5bn into transit
    New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has proposed investing $51.5 billion in the city’s subways, buses and railroads over the next five years. Janno Lieber, MTA chief development officer, says: “The proposed capital programme will be truly transformational – more trains, more buses, more service, more accessibility and more reliability.” The 2020-2024 Capital Plan would put $40bn into the city’s subways and buses and $6.1bn for 1,900 new subway cars to help mitigate delays. MTA also wa