Towards a Low Carbon Economy by Removing Fossil Fuel Subsidies?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianglong Li ◽  
Chuanwang Sun
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Low Carbon Economy ◽  
Fuel Subsidies ◽  
Fossil Fuel Subsidies ◽  
Carbon Economy

Planetary Challenges

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Wright ◽  
Daniel Nyberg
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Environmental Cost ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Low Carbon Economy ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Fossil Fuel Industry ◽  
Fuel Industry ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Carbon Economy

The extraction and consumption of fossil-fuel-based energy has underpinned the growth of global capitalism over the past two centuries, resulting in an industry dominated by some of the largest and most powerful companies in the world. However, the centrality of fossil energy to economic growth has also come at a huge environmental cost as escalating carbon emissions have generated a climate crisis that now threatens the future of organised human civilisation. This article explores the origins of the global fossil-fuel industry and its political response to the growing recognition of climate change and moves towards the decarbonization of economies. It highlights how the industry has engaged in various forms of political activity to defend itself from critique and delay the transition to a low-carbon economy. While this has been a successful strategy for over forty years, the article notes how the growing urgency of the climate crisis and the current global pandemic now pose fundamental threats to the continuation of fossil fuel expansion.

scholarly journals Economic Perspective on Discontinuing Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Moving toward a Low-Carbon Society

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1217
Author(s):  
Kyungwon Park ◽  
Yoon Lee ◽  
Joon Han
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Computable General Equilibrium ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Computable General Equilibrium Model ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Fuel Subsidies ◽  
Fossil Fuel Subsidies

In Korea, multiple efforts, including subsidies to energy industries, have been made to increase renewable energy use and strengthen the competitiveness of renewable energy industries. Ironically, a considerable number of subsidies have also been provided for fossil fuels, drawing criticism both within Korea and overseas that these subsidies increase not only fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, but also energy market distortion. Thus, the Korean government announced a plan to discontinue some fossil fuel subsidies in 2020. Based on Korea’s policy orientation to expand renewable energy and strengthen its competitiveness, various scenarios to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and increase renewable energy subsidies can be examined. This study used the computable general equilibrium model to subdivide the energy sector and analyze the influence of changes in subsidies on the Korean economy and CO2 emissions based on three scenarios. The results show that phasing out fossil fuel subsidies causes a significant reduction in domestic CO2 emissions by −6.9 to −8.5%, depending on our scenarios. Implementing energy policy in Korea may have minimum impacts on its economy when fossil fuel subsidies transfer to renewable energy industries. The real gross domestic product could be only decreased by −0.04 to −0.14%.

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