May 23, 2015

$500 billion and $5 trillion in fossil fuel subsidies

The International Monetary Fund has found that fossil fuels receive $500 billion in direct subsidies and $5 trillion in indirect subsidies a year. 

Let that sink in... that is more than 6% of the world's GDP that fossil fuel suppliers are not paying to account for the cost of burning their products. 

75% of those costs are local costs resulting from immediate health impacts like air pollution. You are paying those costs in your health care bills. 

Approximately 25% of those costs are attributable to climate change impacts. Droughts, wildfires, extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy, Irene, off the charts snowstorms, sea level rise... 

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