Barriers to change and ways forward for fossil fuel subsidy reform in Sweden
(2013) In Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science MESM01 20131LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
- Abstract
- Fossil fuel subsides are estimated to between 523‐1900 billion USD per year, depending on how subsidies are defined. Phasing out fossil fuel subsides is therefore considered a first best solution towards more sustainable energy systems and making progress on fossil fuel subsidy reform has a big potential for climate change mitigation. Also in Sweden that has among the highest environmental taxes in the world there are subsides to fossil fuels, according to OECD, mostly in the form of tax
exemptions from the energy and CO2 tax. In this thesis, barriers to, and ways forward for fossil fuel subsidy reform in Sweden will be explored. As Sweden is taking on the challenge to live up to its commitments within the UNFCCC process, phasing out... (More) - Fossil fuel subsides are estimated to between 523‐1900 billion USD per year, depending on how subsidies are defined. Phasing out fossil fuel subsides is therefore considered a first best solution towards more sustainable energy systems and making progress on fossil fuel subsidy reform has a big potential for climate change mitigation. Also in Sweden that has among the highest environmental taxes in the world there are subsides to fossil fuels, according to OECD, mostly in the form of tax
exemptions from the energy and CO2 tax. In this thesis, barriers to, and ways forward for fossil fuel subsidy reform in Sweden will be explored. As Sweden is taking on the challenge to live up to its commitments within the UNFCCC process, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies could be one of many
important instruments. But there are a number of barriers related to the political economy of fossil fuel subsidies that needs to be addressed for reform to be successful. For overcoming the barriers, we can learn a few lessons from the introduction of the CO2 tax in Sweden. Today, the supply of fossil fuel subsidies is mainly justified with regard to economic competitiveness and distributional concerns. Each subsidy therefore needs to be assessed in more detail to see if it still delivers on the initial objective. Other barriers are lack of information about the effects of subsidies and lack of problem awareness. For the policy process to move forward, these barriers need to be addressed, but there also needs to be a call for action, opposing views and new information that drives the
process forward. Based on a number of interviews, observations and analysis of secondary sources it is suggested in this thesis that there is a call for action to phase out individual subsidies, but also a broad consensus environmental policy needs to be cost‐efficient. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/3812853
- author
- Forstorp, Moa LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MESM01 20131
- year
- 2013
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- fossil fuel subsidy reform, low carbon economy, climate policy Sweden, climate change mitigation, sustainability science
- publication/series
- Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science
- report number
- 2013:015
- language
- English
- id
- 3812853
- date added to LUP
- 2013-06-19 14:44:54
- date last changed
- 2013-06-19 14:44:54
@misc{3812853,
abstract = {{Fossil fuel subsides are estimated to between 523‐1900 billion USD per year, depending on how subsidies are defined. Phasing out fossil fuel subsides is therefore considered a first best solution towards more sustainable energy systems and making progress on fossil fuel subsidy reform has a big potential for climate change mitigation. Also in Sweden that has among the highest environmental taxes in the world there are subsides to fossil fuels, according to OECD, mostly in the form of tax
exemptions from the energy and CO2 tax. In this thesis, barriers to, and ways forward for fossil fuel subsidy reform in Sweden will be explored. As Sweden is taking on the challenge to live up to its commitments within the UNFCCC process, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies could be one of many
important instruments. But there are a number of barriers related to the political economy of fossil fuel subsidies that needs to be addressed for reform to be successful. For overcoming the barriers, we can learn a few lessons from the introduction of the CO2 tax in Sweden. Today, the supply of fossil fuel subsidies is mainly justified with regard to economic competitiveness and distributional concerns. Each subsidy therefore needs to be assessed in more detail to see if it still delivers on the initial objective. Other barriers are lack of information about the effects of subsidies and lack of problem awareness. For the policy process to move forward, these barriers need to be addressed, but there also needs to be a call for action, opposing views and new information that drives the
process forward. Based on a number of interviews, observations and analysis of secondary sources it is suggested in this thesis that there is a call for action to phase out individual subsidies, but also a broad consensus environmental policy needs to be cost‐efficient.}},
author = {{Forstorp, Moa}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
series = {{Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science}},
title = {{Barriers to change and ways forward for fossil fuel subsidy reform in Sweden}},
year = {{2013}},
}