The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in partnership with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI), is organizing a technical workshop on “Reforming Fossil Fuel Subsidies for an Inclusive Green Economy”. The workshop is scheduled to take place on April 28-29, 2014 in Nairobi, Kenya.
The purpose of this workshop is to provide a better understanding of the policies that support the production and use of fossil fuels, share countries’ experiences with subsidy reform, and identify remaining knowledge gaps in terms of data, methodology, and policy guidance.
The removal of inefficient and environmentally harmful subsidies is one of the most promising avenues to promote investments for a green economy transition. In particular, energy subsidy reforms—removing both direct subsidies and implicit subsidies from the failure to charge for environmental damages—could generate significant revenues for fiscal consolidation, lowering other burdensome taxes, or funding desirable spending. At the same time, they discourage excessive energy consumption and mobilize clean energy investments. Leaders around the world have already made commitments to energy subsidy reforms. In 2009, G20 leaders agreed to phase out inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies in the medium term and leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) have made similar commitments.
This workshop builds on the technical workshop on Fiscal Policies towards an Inclusive Green Economy, held in October 2012 in Geneva, details of which can be found on the UNEP website.
Approximately 60 participants are expected to attend, including representatives from ministries of finance, energy and the environment from 41 different countries, mostly in Africa.
The program for the workshop can be accessed here.
For more information, please contact Dambudzo Muzenda at [email protected].