Laser Talk: Fossil Fuel Subsidies and the G7/G20

Laser Talk: Fossil Fuel Subsidies and the G7/G20

Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada’s full description of our Carbon Fee and Dividend Policy also includes the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies.

There is an urgent need to reconsider the fossil fuel industry’s economic value chain in light of climate change. Fossil fuel subsidies are artificially incentivizing companies to sink costs into infrastructure with dubious prospects. The costs of orphaned wells, tailing ponds, climate disruptions, and other externalities will be borne by future taxpayers long after fossil fuels have ceased to generate wealth. Climate change is a game changer.

Despite some reforms in recent years, Canada is still the largest provider of fossil fuel subsidies to oil and gas production in the G7 per unit of GDP 2018 according to the September 2018 report: Public Cash for Oil and Gas: Mapping federal fiscal support for fossil fuels.

Canada was the G7 President in 2018. Climate change is included in the five pillars of their G7 presidency.

In  February 2018, in alignment with the Global Taskforce to the G7, Citizens’ Climate Lobby endorsed their following recommendation to the G7: Following its commitment to phase out fossil fuel subsidies by 2025, the G7 must now present a detailed roadmap on how G7 members intend to meet this commitment and accelerate phase-out timelines. As G7 President, it is incumbent upon Canada to lead by example and agree to a peer review of its fossil fuel subsidies under the G20 process.

In August 2018 Canada committed to peer review of fossil fuel subsidies under the G20 process.

We expect Canada to hasten their commitments as these subsidies are counterproductive, diminish public trust, and there appears to be a delay

Updated: March 8, 2020.

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