Fossil fuels benefited from record subsidies of $13 million a minute in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund, despite being the primary cause of the climate crisis.

The IMF analysis found the total subsidies for oil, gas, and coal in 2022 were $7 trillion. That is equivalent to 7% of global GDP, and almost double what the world spends on education. The IMF’s findings come as the climate crisis wreaks havoc across the world, causing heat waves, wildfires, and floods from the Americas to Europe to Asia.

For years, countries have been promising to end subsidies to ensure that the price of fossil fuels reflects their true environmental costs, but they have achieved little to date. The G20 nations, which cause 80% of global carbon emissions, pledged to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies in 2009.

The World Bank reported in June that fossil fuel and agricultural subsidies combined could amount to $12 trillion a year and were causing “environmental havoc.”

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FULL STORY -- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/24/fossil-fuel-subsidies-imf-report-climate-crisis-oil-gas-coal

SOURCE OF GRAPH -- https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2023/08/24/fossil-fuel-subsidies-surged-to-record-7-trillion

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