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

  • Developments in smarter multi-modal fare paynment
    February 2, 2012
    This section pulls together all the multi-modal topics in each issue. Subject matter will include smartcards; ticketing and payment systems; passenger information systems; fleet management for buses, trains and light rail; park and ride systems; on-line access to real-time information via Internet portals
    Read More
  • Monitoring and transparency preserve enforcement's reputation
    July 30, 2012
    What can be done to preserve automated enforcement's reputation in the face of media and public criticism? Here, system manufacturers and suppliers talk about what they think are the most appropriate business models. Recent events in Italy only served to once again to push automated enforcement into the media spotlight. At the heart of the matter were the numerous alleged instances of local authorities and their contract suppliers of enforcement services colluding to illegally shorten amber signal phase tim
    Read More
  • UK to ‘ban petrol and diesel cars by 2035’
    February 6, 2020
    A  ban on purchasing new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars and vans in the UK will be brought forward from 2040 to 2035.
    Read More
  • ITS industry in the US has grown to $48 billion and will expand
    April 17, 2012
    ITS America has released what it says is the most comprehensive study to date on the scope of the ITS industry in the United States and North America. Researchers found intelligent transportation to be a fast growing sector valued at approximately US$48 billion. Results indicate that cities and states with drastically reduced budgets are turning to technology solutions to maximize existing highway capacity.
    Read More

Highlighted Content