Thread by @jakob_skovgaard

As the #COP26 negotiations get real on #FossilFuel subsidies, it is worth looking into what we can learn from existing commitments to phase out such subsidies. In our new article, @harrovanasselt and I argue they have suffered from lack of precision. (1/5)
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

The commitments fail to lower fossil fuel subsidy levels: #G20 committed to fossil fuel subsidy reform in 2009, but G20 subsidy levels were at similar levels in 2010 and in 2019 bit.ly/3Dcgf4o (2/5)

Fossil fuel subsidies are difficult to reform, and countries may add qualifiers such as "inefficient" to the commitments exactly because they don't want to be held accountable to reforms they cannot implement (3/5)

But fossil fuels are not identical: some are extremely difficult to reform, others less so. And some are much more environmentally damaging than others (e.g. universal petrol subsidies, subsidies for new coal production) (4/5)

Therefore we call for distinguishing between fossil fuel subsidies in the international commitments, e.g. on the basis of climate impact and how easy to reform they are. (5/5) #dkgreen

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