4 ms·

European Court of Auditors criticizes fossil fuels subsidies

4 points by guerby 5y ago

guerby 5y ago
Official press release : http://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocuments/INRW22_01/INRW_Energy_taxation_EN.pdf http://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocuments/INRW22_01/INRW_E... From the press release : "Overall, Member States’ subsidies for fossil fuels amount to over €55 billion per year, and fifteen Member States spend more on fossil-fuel subsidies than on renewable energy subsidies. " Report : https://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocuments/RW22_01/RW_Energy_taxation_EN.pdf https://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocuments/RW22_01/RW_Ener... ECA : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Court_of_Auditors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Court_of_Auditors
goatsneez 5y ago
This is certainly a touchy issue, which does not have just a single point of view. There are treaties signed among different states (for decades on still) because oil/gas infrastructure (and comodity) is a strategic resource it is (naturally) financially supported (and politically/economically aligned) with private business. Including this fact into the mix of goals on the tables, there is no easy way out (almost want to say free lunch, but its much more than that, it is geo-political "survival" issue). So, Im little lost at what such press-release want to achieve in the mind of public? Clearly, there are "unseen" things and deals kept away from public to make informed opinion. Rhetorical question is why?
- guerby 5y ago
  For me audit institutions are here to provide to citizens a measurement of the effective policies in place vs what politicians are saying they're doing. For example page 10 of the report shows that environment taxes have decreased in the past few years (as a share of all taxes) and labour taxes have increased, which is probably not what we want.
  - goatsneez 5y ago
    I would concede your logic is fine, however, and for a sake of discussion as well, one cannot view such "data" outside of the broader context of how nation-states interact and compete for power (ie. geopolitics). Sure, audit does serve the said function and it is valuable effort, however, understanding the data does have several levels of context -(some of them including costs other than environmental). Is it necessary or valuable to consider things in this broader context? Let me know what you think, but I would submit that ignoring it is to remove oneself from reality of the issue and the position in which those making/drafting policies and decisions (strategic - on energy, security, etc) are. In analogy, people of Germany support "green ideas" but in another news they people drive to Poland to tank their car to save 30 eur when the prices are too high. I hope the point is not lost in this analogy.
    - guerby 5y ago
      Yes energy is of course the poster child of a geopolitical subject :). I don't think ECA mission includes geopolitics reviews, but that doesn't mean ECA reports are useless to me. For example the EUR/MWh and EUR/tCO2 figures comparing various sectors tax are a nice way to get through the discourses and to the facts.

4 points by guerby 5y ago

Official press release : http://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocuments/INRW22_01/INRW_Energy_taxation_EN.pdf http://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocuments/INRW22_01/INRW_E... From the press release : "Overall, Member States’ subsidies for fossil fuels amount to over €55 billion per year, and fifteen Member States spend more on fossil-fuel subsidies than on renewable energy subsidies. " Report : https://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocuments/RW22_01/RW_Energy_taxation_EN.pdf https://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocuments/RW22_01/RW_Ener... ECA : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Court_of_Auditors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Court_of_Auditors

goatsneez 5y ago

This is certainly a touchy issue, which does not have just a single point of view. There are treaties signed among different states (for decades on still) because oil/gas infrastructure (and comodity) is a strategic resource it is (naturally) financially supported (and politically/economically aligned) with private business. Including this fact into the mix of goals on the tables, there is no easy way out (almost want to say free lunch, but its much more than that, it is geo-political "survival" issue). So, Im little lost at what such press-release want to achieve in the mind of public? Clearly, there are "unseen" things and deals kept away from public to make informed opinion. Rhetorical question is why?

guerby 5y ago
For me audit institutions are here to provide to citizens a measurement of the effective policies in place vs what politicians are saying they're doing. For example page 10 of the report shows that environment taxes have decreased in the past few years (as a share of all taxes) and labour taxes have increased, which is probably not what we want.
- goatsneez 5y ago
  I would concede your logic is fine, however, and for a sake of discussion as well, one cannot view such "data" outside of the broader context of how nation-states interact and compete for power (ie. geopolitics). Sure, audit does serve the said function and it is valuable effort, however, understanding the data does have several levels of context -(some of them including costs other than environmental). Is it necessary or valuable to consider things in this broader context? Let me know what you think, but I would submit that ignoring it is to remove oneself from reality of the issue and the position in which those making/drafting policies and decisions (strategic - on energy, security, etc) are. In analogy, people of Germany support "green ideas" but in another news they people drive to Poland to tank their car to save 30 eur when the prices are too high. I hope the point is not lost in this analogy.
  - guerby 5y ago
    Yes energy is of course the poster child of a geopolitical subject :). I don't think ECA mission includes geopolitics reviews, but that doesn't mean ECA reports are useless to me. For example the EUR/MWh and EUR/tCO2 figures comparing various sectors tax are a nice way to get through the discourses and to the facts.