Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of Aotearoa/New Zealand, is urging that other countries follow the NZ example and end government subsidies of fossil fuels.
Ardern said New Zealand had been leading the charge on "climate finance" such as ending fossil fuel subsidies.
"Global agreement on the need for fossil fuel subsidy reform is long overdue. Fossil fuel subsidies undo any advances we make on pricing carbon.
"We cannot take money from emitters paying for their carbon emissions and then give them money back in subsidies."
She said the $US500 billion per year in subsidies could be spent elsewhere.
"Imagine what diverting trillions of mobilised finance could do to help us achieve our collective goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
In the US, Greenpeace estimates that $15bn is given annually in direct federal government subsidies to climate polluters with another $649bn in indirect and state subsidies.
Even in the middle of a climate crisis, oil and gas corporations are still planning new drilling projects. These projects wouldn’t be possible without subsidies from the federal government. Because subsidies reduce operating expenses and pass on the real cost of pollution to consumers, oil production would quickly become unprofitable in the United States without them.
Jacinda Ardern is hardly a radical by most standards, but her Green-supported Labour government has declared an official climate emergency and appears to be taking that commitment reasonably seriously. (Note: don’t be confused by the term “tabled” in this article, which in the UK & NZ means “brought to the table” rather than postponed as it does in the US.)
President Biden’s climate summit is an excellent time for people around the world to take PM Jacinda’s advice and demand an end to climate destruction via corporate welfare. If you agree (and you are in the US), you may want to sign Greenpeace’s petition to the President.