More than 200 non-government organizations are calling on G20 energy ministers meeting in Beijing this week to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies by 2020.
The United Nations, the European Union, and the NGOs “urged the G20 to end years of fruitless talks and follow the lead of the Group of Seven industrialized nations by setting a date for the end of subsidies on coal, gas, and oil,” Reuters reports. “EU officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were pressing for 2025,” five years later than the NGOs’ deadline.
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“Post Paris, the question has become, why wouldn’t you put a timeline on it?” said Rachel Kyte, CEO of the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative. “With low oil prices, it is the time to do it, and the countries who are doing it now are reaping the rewards.”
The NGO letter, circulated by Washington, DC-based Oil Change International, recommended that G20 ministers affirm their “commitment to phase out and rationalize fossil fuel subsidies by 2020, recognizing the need to support the poor, and supported by transparent and publicly available annual reporting.”
It also asked the countries to undertake to strengthen “green and low-carbon policies and regulations, with a view to ending public investment in oil, gas, and coal projects, both domestically and internationally, by 2020.”
