globalchange  > 气候变化事实与影响
DOI: doi:10.1038/nclimate2679
论文题名:
Development incentives for fossil fuel subsidy reform
作者: Michael Jakob
刊名: Nature Climate Change
ISSN: 1758-814X
EISSN: 1758-6934
出版年: 2015-07-24
卷: Volume:5, 页码:Pages:709;712 (2015)
语种: 英语
英文关键词: Climate-change mitigation ; Developing world ; Climate-change policy
英文摘要:

Reforming fossil fuel subsidies could free up enough funds to finance universal access to water, sanitation, and electricity in many countries, as well as helping to cut global greenhouse-gas emissions.

Fossil fuel subsidies are not only economically inefficient, but also harmful for the environment1, 2, 3. In 2011, fossil fuel consumption was subsidized by about US$550 billion per year, globally4 — oil subsidies alone account for economic inefficiencies (that is, annual deadweight losses) of about US$44 billion (ref. 5). Reducing fossil fuel subsidies would also help to protect the climate6. Estimates by the International Energy Agency7 indicate that a universal phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies would lower annual global CO2 emissions by 4.4%. From this perspective, reducing or even removing such subsidies seems to be a no-regret option8. However, substantial fossil fuel subsidies are granted in many countries, mostly targeted at oil and petroleum products or electricity consumption.

A common explanation for the prevalence of these subsidies lies in political economy motives9. Even though low-income groups derive comparatively low benefits from fossil fuel subsidies10, there is nevertheless considerable opposition to subsidy removal11, as the resulting rise in energy prices may worsen the situation of the poorest part of the population12. For this reason, several policies to make subsidy reform 'pro-poor' have been proposed. These include direct cash transfers (Iran and Georgia) and strengthening social safety nets (Indonesia, Jordan and Moldova) to compensate affected parties for their increased spending on energy13, 14.

Here, we examine what human development benefits could be achieved if these subsidies were redirected to spending on public infrastructure. We put into perspective the amount of fossil fuel subsidies currently deployed in relation to the financial means required to provide access to basic services — in particular, water, sanitation, electricity, telecommunication and paved roads. For these services, access gaps are most severe in Africa and South Asia, but also for some low-income countries in Latin America (see Table 1). For instance, more than two-thirds of the population lacks access to sanitation and electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. Linking fossil fuel subsidy reform to infrastructure investments could not only promote environmental integrity, but also human development. In this way, it could successfully address one of the main obstacles to subsidy reform, namely the concern of adverse development outcomes.

Table 1: Share of population lacking access to basic services by region.
Corrected online 06 August 2015
In the Commentary 'Development incentives for fossil fuel subsidy reform' (Nature Clim. Change 5, 709–712; 2015), in the Acknowledgements, J. Steckel's surname was incorrectly spelled. This has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions after print 6 August 2015.
  1. Reforming Energy Subsidies: Opportunities to Contribute to the Climate Change Agenda (UNEP, 2008); www.unep.org/pdf/pressreleases/reforming_energy_subsidies.pdf
  2. Untold Billions: Fossil-Fuel Subsidies, Their Impacts and the Path to Reform (GSI, 2009).
  3. Joint report by IEA, OPEC, OECD and World Bank on Fossil-Fuel and Other Energy Subsidies: An Update of the G20 Pittsburgh and Toronto Commitments (IEA, OPEC, OECD & World Bank, 2011); www.oecd.org/site/tadffss/49006998.pdf
  4. World Energy Outlook 2014 (IEA, 2014).
  5. Davis, L. W. The Economic Cost of Global Fuel Subsidies (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2013); http://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/19736.html
  6. Edenhofer, O. et al. Glob. Environ. Change 31, 132143 (2015).
  7. World Energy Outlook 2011 (IEA, 2011).
  8. Fuel Taxes and the Poor: The Distributional Effects of Gasoline Taxation and Their Implications for Climate Policy (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2011).
  9. Strand, J. Political Economy Aspects of Fuel Subsidies: a Conceptual Framework (World Bank, 2013); http://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/6392.html
  10. Arze del Granado, F. J., Coady, D. & Gillingham, R. World Dev. 40, 22342248 (2012).
  11. Clements, B., Coady, D., Fabrizio, S., Gupta, S. & Shang, B. Econ. Energy Environ. Policy 3, (2014).
  12. Rao, N. D. Energy Sust. Dev. 16, 3543 (2012).
  13. Implementing Energy Subsidy Reforms: Evidence from Developing Countries (World Bank, 2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-9561-5
  14. Energy Subsidy Reform: Lessons and Implications (IMF, 2013); http://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2013/012813.pdf
  15. Alkire, S. World Dev. 30, 181205 (2002).
  16. Drèze, J. & Sen, A. An Uncertain Glory: India and Its Contradictions (Princeton Univ. Press, 2013).
  17. Jakob, M. & Hilaire, J. Climatic Change http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-015-1406-2 (2015).
  18. Jakob, M. et al. Nature Clim. Change 4, 961968 (2014).
  19. World Development Indicators (World Bank, 2014); http://go.nature.com/Oo93Bg
  20. World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database 18th edn (ITU, 2014); http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/publications/wtid.aspx
  21. Pachauri, S. et al. Environ. Res. Lett. 8, 024015 (2013).

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We thank S. Pachauri, N.D. Rao and J. Steckel for helpful comments and suggestions.

Affiliations

  1. Michael Jakob, Claudine Chen, Sabine Fuss, Annika Marxen and Ottmar Edenhofer are at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, Torgauer Straße 12–15, 10829 Berlin, Germany

  2. A.M. and O.E. are also at Technical University Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 152, 10623 Berlin, Germany

    • Annika Marxen &
    • Ottmar Edenhofer
  3. M.J. and O.E are also at Potsdam Institute for Climate Change Impact Research, Telegrafenberg 31, 14473 Potsdam, Germany

    • Michael Jakob &
    • Ottmar Edenhofer

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    Supplementary information

URL: http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v5/n8/full/nclimate2679.html
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标识符: http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/4642
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Michael Jakob. Development incentives for fossil fuel subsidy reform[J]. Nature Climate Change,2015-07-24,Volume:5:Pages:709;712 (2015).
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