- Bruce Rich
- Environmental Forum
- Septemer-October 2011
- p. 20
The tragedy is that there already lies a clear path to achieve two thirds of the needed CO2 emission reductions, while supporting poverty-reducing clean energy investments in developing countries, without additional funding or wrestling with legal commitments to binding caps. Much of the financing could come from redirecting existing fossil fuel subsidies....Global consumption subsidies for fossil fuels totaled $312 billion in 2010, of which $252 billion was in developing nations and emerging economies. In many developing countries these subsidies are, in the words of the World Bank, “a huge drag on the economy and on the public purse....” Reduction of these subsidies should be a first priority in development assistance, at the same time helping countries to rechannel the money saved into energy efficiency and low carbon electricity.
