Experts warn G7 nations over fossil fuels

Some of the world’s richest countries are spending billions each year subsidising fossil fuels despite pledging to turn off the tap completely by 2025, research has found.

The G7 nations – Canada, the US, France, Germany, the UK, Japan and Italy – collectively spend more than £70 billion annually supporting oil, gas and coal according to think tanks and environmental groups.

Experts from Oil change International (OCI), the Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Natural Resources Defence Council warned that G7 risks missing target of phasing out subsidies by 2025 and said to meet the objective of keeping warming to no more than 2C, at least three-quarters of existing reserves of oil, gas and coal will need to be left in the ground.

The UK spent £11 million on subsidies for fossil-fuel intensive industries. The report criticised the UK government for failing to publish an inventory of its subsidies. It warned the 2025 target to end fossil fuel subsidies across the seven countries would be missed.

Shelagh Whitley, head of the Climate and Energy Programme at the Overseas Development Institute, said: “G7 countries continue to subsidise oil, gas and coal, fuelling dangerous climate change with taxpayers’ money.”

A government spokesman said: “We are delivering the biggest carbon reductions of any G7 nation over the last 25 years.”