PDF《G20 subsidies to oil, gas》

2050 goal of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are 80% lower than

1990 levels. In parallel with the increase in support for fossil fuel production, the government has significantly watered down its efforts to promote energy efficiency and low carbon energy by rolling back building regulations and cutting financial support for both large- and small-scale renewable energy installations (HM Treasury, 2015b;

Vaughan, 2015). The commitment of the previous coalition government to continue increasing the proportion of government revenue from environmental taxes was dropped in the

2015 Budget, and from August

2015 the government will start applying the Climate Change Levy C originally designed as a tax on fossil fuels C to renewable electricity sources (HM Treasury, 2015b). Through its membership of the G20, and as a new member of the Friends of Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform, the UK has called for fossil fuel subsidy reform (Cameron, 2014;

King, 2015). Specifically, in a speech at the UN Climate Summit in

2014 the Prime Minister David Cameron called on fellow nations to join in '

fighting against the economically and environmentally perverse fossil fuel subsidies, which distort free markets and rip off taxpayers'

(Cameron, 2014). However, because the UK government only defines subsidies as '

government action that lowers the pre-tax price to consumers to below international market levels'

, a recent freedom of information request resulted in the government maintaining that '

the UK has no fossil fuel subsidies'

(DECC, 2015d). National subsidies Tax expenditure The UK stands out as a major industrialised economy that, despite the G20 pledge, has dramatically increased its support to fossil fuels in recent years. While other nations have responded to the drop in energy prices by reducing fossil fuel consumer subsidies, the UK has reduced taxes on fossil fuel production, increasing subsidies to fossil fuel producers. Many of the changes to the UK'

s tax regime for oil and gas are ver........