G20 members provided a record $1.4 trillion (approximately Rs 116 lakh crore) in public money to support fossil fuels in 2022, according to a study — Fanning the Flames: G20 Provides Record Financial Support for Fossil Fuels — by International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and partners. The report, to be released on Wednesday (August 23), states that the amount, which includes fossil fuel subsidies ($1 trillion), investments by state-owned enterprises ($322 billion) and lending from public financial institutions ($50 billion), is more than double the pre-Covid-19 and pre-energy crisis levels of 2019. The report comes ahead of the Leaders’ Summit when the Group of 20 will meet in Delhi on September 9-10 and attempt to gain consensus on climate change. “These figures are a stark reminder of the massive amount of public money G20 governments continue to pour into fossil fuels despite the increasingly devastating impacts of climate change. The G20 has the power and the responsibility to transform our fossil-based energy systems. It is crucial for the bloc to put fossil fuel subsidies on the Delhi Leaders’ Summit agenda and take meaningful actions to eliminate all public financial flows for coal, oil and gas,’’ said Tara Laan, senior associate at IISD and the lead author of the study. The researchers found that G20 members could raise an additional $1 trillion every year by setting minimum carbon taxation levels of $25–75/tCO2e, depending on the country's income. The report said the taxes on fossil fuels on G20 member countries currently do not reflect their costs to society with many members failing to impose windfall taxes on record profits that fossil fuel companies gained last year at the peak of the energy crisis.
