Renewable Energy Subsidies & Fossil Fuel Phase-Out

Energy challenges are similar across the world. Fortunately, so are the solutions. In many cases, subsidy reform and energy efficiency are closely linked and mutually supportive.

Energy transitions are about people: the ones who make the decisions and the ones affected by those decisions. A ‘Just Transition’ approach ensures the affected people are considered by those making decisions.

Indonesia is one of the few developing countries that has the capability of reducing fiscal independence on revenues from fossil fuel production as government revenues are in rapid decline. Investments in renewable energy can be one of the sectors driving diversification of the Indonesian economy and its fiscal transition away from fossil fuels.

On behalf of IISD’s Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI), I presented at the panel discussion on Addressing the Challenges for the Global Energy Transition towards Climate Compatible Future on August 7 at the Civil 20 (C20) Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The summit’s objective was to facilitate an exchange among civil society representatives from G20 and other countries on the G20 agenda.

In November 2015, the Canadian province of Alberta committed to a phase-out of coal power by 2030. The phase-out of coal power in Alberta will involve the retirement of over 40 per cent of Alberta’s 2016 installed capacity and the de facto phase-out of local thermal coal mines.