NAIROBI, Kenya, April 25, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Reforming Fossil Fuel Subsidies for an Inclusive Green Economy / Experts from UNEP, IMF, GIZ and Others Available for One-on-One Interviews
What:
Workshop on Reforming Fossil Fuel Subsidies for an Inclusive Green Economy, 2014
When:
Monday, 28 April 9:00 a.m. – Tuesday, 29 April 16:30 p.m.
Where:
Conference Room 3, UN Compound, Gigiri
Who:
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director
Benedict Clements, Division Chief, Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF
Detlef Schreiber, Head of the Competence Centre for Environment, Resource Efficiency and Waste Management, German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ)
Laura Merrill, Senior Researcher, Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI)
Numerous Ministers of Finance, Energy and Environment from around the world
In today’s complex economic environment, it is clear that we need to better understand the scale of fossil fuel subsidies and their potential for green investment. There is an urgent need to share countries’ experiences of subsidy reform and to identify remaining knowledge gaps in data, methodology and policy guidance.
To tackle these issues, some 80 participants are expected to attend the Workshop on Reforming Fossil Fuel Subsidies for an Inclusive Green Economy, 2014, including government officials; international/regional organizations; academic institutions; NGOs and local UN missions.
Discussions will focus on the many stark facts concerning fossil fuel subsidies.
For example, it is estimated that subsidies use up as much as 20 per cent of government revenues in Asia and amount to 15 per cent of the GDP in the Middle East and North Africa – resources that could be better spend on advancing economic and social goals.
Spending on fossil fuel subsidies can be inefficient, given that 43 per cent of the subsidy benefits the richest 20 per cent of the population, while only 7 per cent reaches the poor.
At the same time, fuel subsidies can divert government resources from pro-poor spending. For instance, in Africa, governments spend 3 per cent of GDP on average on fossil fuel subsidies, equivalent to their total health care allocation, despite the daunting health care challenges many countries in Africa struggle to face.
Fossil fuel subsidy reform is essential not only to fighting poverty but also to confronting the threats of climate change, as emissions from the energy sector account for 78 per cent of the total greenhouse gas emissions increase in the past decade.
Join the world’s leading experts in tackling these essential issues. One-on-one interviews are available upon request.
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