(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Renewable Tuesday: Subsidies and Investments [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-18 We’re here to divvy up billions of slices to be taken in the Death of Carbon by a Billion Cuts—what you can do at home, or locally, or by national or global activism. Today: Cutting subsidies and investments in fossil fuels, environmental destruction, and wholesale slaughter. In future episodes, we can cover each of the essential technologies, and each of the major forms and locations of investments needed. I have started writing Renewable Friday posts, to continue covering current news that doesn’t fit into these Tuesday strategic overviews and policy discussions. The Problem A teraton of CO 2 in the atmosphere and oceans. in the atmosphere and oceans. 427 ppm CO 2 in the air. in the air. Temperature increases of +1.3℃ since the Industrial Revolution. 38 Gigatonnes of CO 2 equivalent being added annually. equivalent being added annually. Trillions of dollars still going into Fossil Foolishness. Wrong-Wing economics and politics. We are at Peak Carbon, a notable tipping point, but the warming will continue even after we get to Net Zero. We have to go strongly Carbon Negative in order to start Global Cooling. Subsidies vs. Carbon Taxes IMF: Climate Change | Fossil Fuel Subsidies Globally, fossil fuel subsidies were $7 trillion or 7.1 percent of GDP in 2022, reflecting a $2 trillion increase since 2020 due to government support from surging energy prices. Subsidies are expected to decline in the near-term as energy price support policies is unwound and international prices fall, but then rise to $8.2 trillion by 2030 as the share of fuel consumption in emerging markets (where price gaps are generally larger) continues to climb. 18 percent of the 2022 subsidy reflects undercharging for supply costs (explicit subsidies) and 82 percent for undercharging for environmental costs and forgone consumption taxes (implicit subsidies), with the share of explicit falling to 8 percent by 2030. This includes direct financial subsidies, plus the cost of externalities that should be offset by a Pigovian carbon tax. Economist Arthur Pigou created the theory of countering externalities with taxes. Economics Books: Arthur Pigou on Carbon Taxes Underpricing for local air pollution costs and climate damages are the largest contributor to global fossil fuel subsidies, accounting for about 30 percent each, followed by explicit subsidies (18 percent), broader road transport externalities such as congestion and road accidents (17 percent), and forgone consumption tax revenue (5 percent). Explicit subsidies are broadly found in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) [Russia], and East Asia and Pacific (EAP) while total (explicit plus implicit) subsidies are predominately in the EAP. Relative to regional GDP however, total subsidies for Europe and North American are smallest at about 3 percent, while subsidies are 23 percent of regional GDP in CIS and 19, 10, and 10 percent respectively in MENA, South Asia and EAP. From 2020 to 2022, subsidies increased substantially in all regions except North America. Raising fuel prices to their fully efficient levels reduces projected global fossil fuel CO2 emissions 43 percent below baseline levels in 2030—or 34 percent below 2019 emissions. This reduction is in line with the 25-50 percent reduction in global GHGs below 2019 levels needed by 2030 to be on track with containing global warming to the Paris goal of 1.5-2℃. Enough to get started with. World Bank: Carbon Pricing Carbon pricing is critical to scaling up climate action. Some 40 countries and more than 20 cities, states and provinces already use carbon pricing mechanisms, with more planning to implement them in the future. Together the carbon pricing schemes now in place cover about half their emissions, which translates to about 13 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. The article links to data sources and organizations working on the issue. Baby steps, it turns out. Many of these measures are the easily evaded Cap and Trade kind (where companies can buy all sorts of bogus carbon credits), not actual emissions taxes. We also need a variety of other regulations on vehicle and industrial emissions and much more. They are also coming along in various countries. Good and Bad Investments Forbes: Dumping Oil And Gas Stocks Improves Investment Returns: New Report Investments in oil, gas and coal underperformed the broader stock market over the last 10 years, while portfolios that avoided investments in fossil fuels altogether saw superior returns, a new report from an independent economics non-profit has revealed. Looking at a range of major stock market indices, researchers at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) in Ohio found that, across the board, an investment of $10,000 saw both markedly weaker growth and higher risk in passive funds that included fossil fuels, over five- and 10-year periods. Recent decades have seen a rapid decline in fortunes for the fossil fuel sector, which in 1980 comprised some 30% of the weight of the S&P 500, but now stands at just 3.9%. We need to talk to S&P about replacing the fossil fuel companies in their index with the leading renewables companies. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/18/2247044/-Renewable-Tuesday-Subsidies-and-Investments?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/