Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US in 2016 pledged to phase out their support for fossil fuels by 2025. However, a study led by Britain’s Overseas Development Institute found they spent at least US$100 billion a year to support fossil fuels at home and abroad in 2015 and 2016. Britain scored the lowest on transparency for denying that it provided fossil-fuel subsidies, even though it supported tax breaks for North Sea oil and gas exploration, the report said. “We do not subsidize the production or consumption of fossil fuels,” a spokesman from the British Treasury said in e-mailed comments to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “We are supporting other countries in phasing out their own fossil-fuel subsidies, as part of our commitment to the G20 and G7 pledges,” he added.

Source: Taipei Times June 04, 2018 15:56 UTC