Some of the world’s richest countries are spending billions of pounds each year subsidising fossil fuels despite pledging to turn off the tap completely by 2025, research has found.
The G7 nations – Canada, the US, France, Germany, the UK, Japan and Italy – collectively spend more than £70 billion annually supporting oil, gas and coal, according to a report.
A collection of think tanks and environmental groups found the UK alone spent £11 million on subsidies for fossil-fuel intensive industries and the production of polluting fuels.
The G7 has been committed to ending subsidies to fossil fuels since 2009, but at current spending levels it risks missing its target of phasing them out by 2025, the researchers said.
Experts say that to meet the objective of keeping warming to no more than 2C, at least three-quarters of existing proven reserves of oil, gas and coal will need to be left in the ground.
The Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Oil change International (OCI), the Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Natural Resources Defence Council ranked the G7 countries against seven different criteria to measure their commitment to meeting their pledge.
Criteria included progress made in ending support to fossil fuel exploration and extraction, fossil fuel based power and fossil fuel use in industry and transport.
Transparency was also considered, such as a government’s reporting on how much it spends on fossil fuels and the mechanisms in place to ensure it meets its targets.
The team also looked at the number of pledges and commitments each government had made to cut its spending on fossil fuel subsidies.
France came out on top – primarily down to its progress on fossil fuel production and power through measures such as stopping handing out new licences for coal and gas exploration.
The US came last because of its support for exploration and production of fossil fuels and the Trump administration’s decision to backtrack on previous pledges to end support for fossil fuels.
The UK was ranked fourth but scored the lowest overall on transparency.
The report criticised the British government for failing to publish an inventory of its fossil fuel subsidies or subsidies to fossil fuel intensive or environmentally harmful industries.
The study compared it to countries such as Germany and Italy which keep a list of where taxpayer money is being used to fund fossil fuels.
The report emphasised that significant progress has been made, particularly in subsidy cuts to the coal industry and an end to public financing of coal fired power stations by Canada, France, the UK and the US – although the US’s position is liable to change.
But it warned that without much more stringent measures, the 2025 target to end fossil fuel subsidies across the seven countries would be missed.
Lead author Shelagh Whitley, head of the Climate and Energy Programme at ODI, said: “Despite repeated pledges to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies G7 countries are continuing to subsidise oil, gas and coal, fuelling dangerous climate change with taxpayers’ money.
“This scorecard addresses the current gap in accountability and, for the first time, tracks progress by each of the G7 countries in phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.
“While some progress has been made in recent years, overall it is a grim picture with not one country scoring highly.”
Report co-author Alex Doukas, Stop Funding Fossils programme director at OCI, said: “Last December, the World Bank committed to ending its finance for oil and gas extraction.
“G7 governments need to follow suit and rapidly phase out their public finance for oil, gas, and coal projects around the world.”
Ivetta Gerasimchuk, from the Global Subsidies Initiative at IISD, added: “G7 governments committed to phase-out fossil fuel subsidies back in 2009, but since then have made very little progress.
“At the same time, less wealthy countries with similar commitments made under the G20, such as India and Indonesia, have reduced subsidies by billions of dollars. The richest countries must demonstrate leadership in ending handouts to fossil fuels.”
A Government spokesman said: “The UK is meeting the G7 target, having no inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.
“We are leading the world in tackling climate change, delivering the biggest carbon reductions of any G7 nation over the last 25 years.”
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