COP19 Side-Event: Reaping Emissions Reductions from Fossil- Fuel Subsidy Reform
Room: Gdansk, National Stadium, Warsaw
The benefits of fossil-fuel subsidy reform are well established. Eliminating harmful fossil-fuel subsidies improves country fiscal balances, minimizes market distortions, encourages private investment, reduces the disproportionate accrual of subsidies to wealthier sectors of society, and frees up scarce public resources for better uses.
More recently, the potential of fossil-fuel subsidy reform to mitigate climate change has also become clear. The International Energy Agency has identified “accelerating the (partial) phase-out of subsidies to fossil-fuel consumption” as one of four policies that—if adopted right away—would give the world a chance to limit global temperature rise to no more than 2°C above the preindustrial level.
This side-event, organized by the Friends of Fossil-Fuel Subsidy Reform (Costa Rica, Denmark, Ethiopia, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development, will focus on the opportunities that fossil-fuel subsidy reform holds for reducing CO2 emissions, and in particular the role of the UNFCCC in supporting that process. The event will also offer an opportunity to discuss how to maximize emission reductions from fossil-fuel subsidy reform, while at the same time protecting vulnerable households from the impact of higher energy prices.
The event will be highly interactive and allow for both moderated discussion between the panelists and questions from the audience. Complementary refreshments will be served following the discussion.
Moderator: Simon Upton, Environment Director, OECD
Discussants:
- Honorable Tim Groser, Minister of Trade, Minister for Climate Change Issues, New Zealand
- Professor (Hon) Rachmat Witoelar, President’s Special Envoy for Climate Change and Chairman, National Council on Climate Change, Indonesia
- Laura Cozzi, Directorate of Global Energy Economics, International Energy Agency
- Matthew Kotchen, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environment and Energy, United States Treasury
- Anna Czajkowska, Lead Analyst Clean Energy Policy, Bloomberg New Energy Finance