Fossil-fuel subsidies dropped sharply by 35%, still more than double the money spent on renewable energy subsidies

Fossil-fuel subsidies dropped sharply by 35%, still more than double the money spent on renewable energy subsidies In its latest ‘World Energy outlook’ report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) found that fossil-fuel subsidies dropped sharply by 35% last year – from almost $500 billion in 2014 to $325 billion in 2015. It’s a significant improvement, but the industry remains largely over-subsidized relative to the renewable energy industry, which receives about half the monetary value in subsidies – $150 billion. It’s important to note here that we are only talking about direct financial incentives. To this day, the fossil fuel industry is still strongly subsidized by taxpayers’ money even before accounting for the cost they make society incur due to health and climate impacts of the emissions they produced. An IMF study published last year found that the fossil fuel industry was receiving the equivalent of ~$5 trillion in subsidies per year when accounting for those impacts. And yet renewable energy is already starting to come in cheaper than fossil fuel, with all of fossil fuel's subsidies. I wonder what would happen if subsidies were equalized and they have to truly compete equally? What would motorists for example say if they ended up suddenly paying double for gasoline / petrol? Then this following paragraph becomes laughable: Several renewable energy leaders have suggested removing subsidies in both sectors. Tesla CEO Elon Musk suggested it two months ago after Robert Murray, a climate-change denier and CEO of Murray Energy Corporation, one of the biggest coal mining firms in the US, called Tesla a “fraud” for receiving subsidies. See http://ift.tt/2i7UUPw