Fossil Fuel Subsidies & Social Safety Nets

This briefing note examines the relationship between fossil-fuel subsidies and Indonesia's broader policy interventions to promote social welfare.

This briefing note examines the relationship between fossil-fuel subsidies and Indonesia's broader policy interventions to promote social welfare.

Low fossil-fuel prices are responsible for wasteful consumption in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), said Al Mazroui, Minister of Energy of the United Arab Emirates, and Al Rumhy, Minister of Oil and Gas of Oman at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference on November 10, 2013. Al Mazroui framed the problem as one of setting low energy prices.

In February, the Victoria Transport Policy Institute (VTPI) published a report which argues that urban households in the United States could save money overall if taxes were raised to pay for better public transport.

The government of Kenya has launched the pilot phase of a subsidy program which aims to provide poor Kenyans with a monthly cash allowance to meet their basic food needs.

South Korea’s ruling party is under fire in the wake of a massive subsidy scandal that reaches the upper echelons of government. The scandal erupted on 6 October when local newspapers reported that the Vice Minister of Health, Welfare and Family affairs, Lee Bong-Hwa, illegally applied for rice subsidies.