More Than $5 Fossil Fuel Subsidies for Every $1 of Support for Renewables

The International Energy Agency’s 2010 World Energy Outlook should finally stamp out the myth that renewable energies are dependent on subsidies.

“Fossil-fuel consumption subsidies amounted to $312 billion in 2009”, says the IEA, while renewable energies in the same year received just $57 billion of “government support” according to the IEA. In other words, renewables got just $1 for every $5-6 given to fossil fuels last year.

The IEA goes on to forecast that government support for renewables will go up to $205 billion in 2035. That is still – a quarter of a century in the future – less than two-thirds of the sum being doled out to fossil fuels today.

In this time of budgetary constraints, governments would be wise to remove the billions of dollars spent in subsidising fossil fuels as well as nuclear. That in turn would mean less subsidies would be needed to bring in new, smarter and cleaner energy technologies such as wind power.

More Than $5 Fossil Fuel Subsidies for Every $1 of Support for Renewables | Christian_Kjaer