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No fair playing ground with current global fossil fuel subsidies

Alexander Richter 21 May 2015

Governments worldwide are spending $10 million every minute to fund fossil fuels. How can renewables and geothermal have a fair play ground?

The geothermal industry not only has to compete with other renewables, but more importantly with fossil fuels. The latter, apart from polluting, being a health hazard and contributing to global warming they also receive massive amounts of subsidies by governemnts worldwide.

In a recent article posted Common Dreams, they quote a newly published article by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stating that “the fossil fuel industry receives $5.3 trillion a year in government subsidies. (…) That means that governments worldwide are spending $10 million every minute to fund energy companies, —more than the estimated public health spending for the entire globe, IMF economists Benedict Clements and Vitor Gaspar wrote in a blog post accompanying the report (pdf).”

China, Russia, India and Japan are the worst offenders, but many vast majority of countries are subsidising fossil fuels too, so everyone here is to blame.

Reducing said subsidies can be greatly beneficial for the economy (more money available), for human health, for the environment and for renewables worldwide.

Source: Common Dreams