Finance ministers urged to phase out fossil fuel subsidies
19 April 2010
As the world’s leading finance ministers prepare to meet for the first time since the Copenhagen climate summit last December, WWF is urging them to set up an international fund that could help create sustainable low-carbon growth.
The G20 ministers, representing 19 countries and the European Union, are gathering in Washington DC on Thursday and Friday (April 22 and 23). Among the items on their agenda will be preparation of a plan to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.
"They must discuss the investments needed for the transition to a clean, low-carbon economy, while finding ways to help vulnerable countries resist the impacts of climate change,” said Mark Lutes, Finance Policy Coordinator for WWF International. "Shifting subsidies from fossil fuels into renewable energy development is one way towards a clean economy."
Efforts to support low-carbon development in poor countries must be matched by similar steps to ‘de-carbonise’ the global economy, Mark Lutes added. The G20 should put renewable energy investment and energy efficiency at the forefront of their efforts towards creating low-carbon economies. Ending subsidies favouring fossil fuels in accordance with the G20's own agenda, and resourcing renewable energy development instead, will be crucial to countering climate change as well as moving towards a clean economy.
We’re also calling on the finance ministers to discuss both short- and long-term climate financing - particularly how to ensure distribution of up to US$100 billion a year by 2020, as agreed by the Copenhagen summit in December. These funds are to be used to support climate action in developing countries.
The Washington meeting is in preparation for a full G20 summit scheduled for June in Toronto.
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