Subsidies to fossil fuels in the European Union amounted to €50 billion in 2018, an increase of 6% since 2015, according to an annex to the 2020 Report on the State of the Energy Union (see EUROPE 12582/18) published by the European Commission on Wednesday 14 October.
This corresponds to just under a third of energy subsidies, with the total amount of these subsidies amounting to €159 billion in 2018 (a 5% increase over 2015).
Of the $159 billion, more than half of the subsidies support the transition to clean energy, but the increase in subsidies for renewable energy is slowing down, the annex further states.
This increase has been only 4% since 2015. Subsidies for energy efficiency, on the other hand, increased by 21% over the same period.
Disparities between Member States
According to this paper, subsidies to fossil fuels have mainly concerned the consumption of petroleum products, particularly in France and Italy, while subsidies in Germany have mainly concerned coal and gas.
The most significant increase was recorded in France, where subsidies for fossil fuels increased by more than €2 billion, or 27%, between 2015 and 2018, due in particular to measures to support fuel consumption in freight transport.
However, some Member States, such as Austria, Denmark, Estonia and Hungary, have gone against this general upward trend and have significantly reduced their fossil fuel subsidies, the Commission says.
Intensify efforts
Noting that fossil fuel subsidies “did not decrease substantially in the past decade”, but have even increased in recent years, the institution believes that what is needed is “to step up efforts to reduce and redirect subsidies (...) to measures promoting the energy transition”.
It further notes that a comparison of its analysis with the data provided in Member States’ National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) has shown that Member States have underestimated fossil fuel subsidies in their plans.
Stressing that only a few NECPs contain detailed measures to phase out these subsidies, the Commission intends to provide guidance clarifying the concept of ‘energy subsidies’, including those for fossil fuels, in order to make future progress reports “more comprehensive and accurate”.
See Annex and State of the Energy Union report: https://bit.ly/34ZncGj; https://bit.ly/375PD84 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)