A new research has shown that a whopping $1.8 trillion is being spent every year to prop up industries that are contributing to environmental damage.
This is despite a global rise in commitments to take climate action.
According to subsidy experts, a “significant” portion of the $1.8 trillion could be redirected to support climate endeavours and bring the world closer to net zero.
While authors of the research, Doug Koplow and Ronald Steenblik, are calling for global reform of harmful subsidies, the $1.8 trillion figure amounts to 2 per cent of total global GDP.
The authors explained that with a shift in political allegiances, plus radical reform in the public and private sectors, this figure can be put to positive use, adding that It could support initiatives that bring everyone in line with the Paris agreement, rather than contradicting it.
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Subsidies are given in the form of tax breaks, government spending and financial aid, with examples including tax rebates for beef production in the Amazon, which results in deforestation.
Although the study found that water pollution and deforestation have both been directly funded by government money, Koplow and Steenblik want to see a target set for ending environmentally damaging subsidy payouts.
They have suggested by the end of the decade, to prevent further biodiversity loss and to contribute to pledges to protect ecosystems.
According to Christiana Figueres, former head of the UN climate change convention, “Nature is declining at an alarming rate and we have never lived on a planet with so little biodiversity,” “Harmful subsidies must be redirected towards protecting the climate and nature, rather than financing our own extinction.”
In the report, the $1.8 trillion figure breaks down to $620 billion for fossil fuels, with agriculture’s $520 billion coming seconds. Tellingly, no data was available for the mining sector, which is thought to contribute to vast ecosystem damage every year.
Recall that In 2021, a UN report showed that 9- per cent of all farming subsidies supported environmentally damaging practices. Human health and ecosystems have suffered because of money given to prop faltering agriculture businesses. This is In addition to contributing to climate change.
Story was adapted from green queen.
