Overview

Fossil fuel subsidies are killing both people and the planet. By encouraging excessive consumption of fossil fuels, subsidies exacerbate pollution and climate change, make violent protests more likely, and waste huge sums that could be used far better. Yet for years there has been minimal progress in eliminating fossil fuel subsidies. This book explains what fossil fuel subsidies are, how they inflict harm and what steps are being taken to reduce them. It also shows why subsidies persist and why existing efforts have been so ineffective. Drawing lessons from countries which have tried to remove fossil fuel subsidies, it explains that the fundamental challenge to reform is not technical, but political. The catastrophic COVID-19 pandemic and the tragic war in Ukraine illustrate that fossil fuel subsidy reform will only succeed where it supports the achievement of things that really matter politically - energy security, protection from climate change, better air quality, and resources to improve people’s lives. The book lays out a new agenda for action on fossil fuel subsidies, showing how a better understanding of the underlying political incentives can lead to more effective approaches to tackling this major global problem.

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9781788532037

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'Neil McCulloch's Stopping Fossil Fuel Subsidies is well worth reading because it takes seriously the complexities of the problem. McCulloch recognises the importance of this topic for plenary protection, but his primary lens is the complex politics and ground realities that lead to political lock-in in fossil fuel subsidising countries. Instead of espousing an abstract global rationality to removing fossil fuel subsidies, he focuses on the need to understand country contexts - the consumption subsidies, the political campaign contributions, the lack of credibility of alternative support - that make fossil fuel removal political fraught. This is the right starting point. Only once he gets 'beneath the surface', as he puts it, does he offer practical, manageable, steps toward reform; steps that take seriously the real political economies of real places and the need to avoid impacts on the poorest. Written in crisp and accessible prose, and sprinkled with country examples, McCulloch's is the best and most accessible text I have seen on the thorny, yet essential challenge of removing fossil fuel subsidies.' Professor Navroz Dubash, Centre for Policy Research

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