At COP28, this year’s climate summit, governments are once again gathering to advance ambitious plans to transform their energy economies over the next several decades. But there are two big problems with this global effort. The measures in place still fall short of what’s needed. And many governments aren’t yet facing up to their true costs.

Both failings arise from the need to make climate policies more politically appealing. Policymakers prefer not to use taxes to make fossil fuels more expensive because that creates obvious losers. Using subsidies to lower the price of clean power makes everyone feel like a winner, for a while anyway. Yet relying on subsidies rather than taxes leaves many of the incentives for high carbon emissions undisturbed, which slows the transition. No less important, it ignores the fiscal consequences — a mistake that’s likely to catch up with governments before much longer.

QOSHE - Governments Are Blowing Fiscal Smoke on Net Zero’s True Cost - Clive Crook
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Governments Are Blowing Fiscal Smoke on Net Zero’s True Cost

8 1
29.11.2023

At COP28, this year’s climate summit, governments are once again gathering to advance ambitious plans to transform their energy economies over the next several decades. But there are two big problems with this global........

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