The Politics of Fossil Fuel Subsidies and their Reform

Fossil fuel subsidies strain public budgets, and contribute to climate change and local air pollution. Despite widespread agreement among experts about the benefits of reforming fossil fuel subsidies, repeated international commitments to eliminate them, and valiant efforts by some countries to reform them, they continue to persist. This book helps explain this conundrum, by exploring the politics of fossil fuel subsidies and their reform. Bringing together scholars and practitioners, the book offers new case studies both from countries that have undertaken subsidy reform, and those that have yet to do so. It explores the roles of various intergovernmental and non-governmental institutions in promoting fossil fuel subsidy reform at the international level, as well as conceptual aspects of fossil fuel subsidies. This is essential reading for researchers and practitioners, and students of political science, international relations, law, public policy, and environmental studies. This title is also available as Open Access.

Part I. Introduction: 1. The politics of fossil fuel subsidies and their reform: an introduction Jakob Skovgaard and Harro van Asselt; Part II. The Scope of the Challenge: 2. Defining and measuring fossil fuel subsidies Doug Koplow; 3. Reforming fossil fuel subsidies: the art of the possible Shelagh Whitley and Laurie van der Burg; 4. The political economy of incumbency: fossil fuel subsidies in global and historical context Peter Newell and Phil Johnstone; Part III. The International Politics of Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Their Reform: 5. Fossil fuel subsidy reform: an international norm perspective Thijs Van de Graaf and Mathieu Blondeel; 6. International push, domestic reform? The influence of international economic institutions on fossil fuel subsidy reform Jakob Svovgaard; 7. Fossil fuel subsidies and the global trade regime Ronald Steenblik, Jehan Sauvage and Christina Timiliotis; 8. Fossil fuel subsidies and the global climate regime Harro van Asselt, Laura Merrill and Kati Kulovesi; 9. Anatomy of an international norm entrepreneur: the friends of fossil fuel subsidy reform Vernon Rive; 10. The global subsidies initiative: catalytic actors and the politics of fossil fuel subsidy reform Nathan Lemphers, Steven Bernstein and Matthew Hoffmann; Part IV. The Domestic Politics of Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Their Reform: 11. Fossil fuel subsidy reform in Indonesia: the struggle for successful reform Kathryn Chelminski; 12. Lessons from the world's largest subsidy benefit transfer scheme: the case of liquefied petroleum gas subsidy reform in India Abhishek Jain, Shalu Agrawal and Karthik Ganesan; 13. Sustaining carbon lock-in: fossil fuel subsidies in South Africa Jesse Burton, Tawney Lott and Britta Rennkamp; 14. The politics of subsidies to coal extraction in Colombia Claudia Strambo, Ana Carolina González Espinosa, Angélica Puertas Velasco and Aaron Atteridge; 15. Reforming Egypt's fossil fuel subsidies in the context of a changing social contract Tom S. H. Moerenhout; 16. Actors, frames and contexts in fossil fuel subsidy reform: the case of Trinidad and Tobago Michelle Scobie; Part V. Synthesis and Conclusions: 17. Conclusions and ways forward Jakob Skovgaard and Harro van Asselt; Index.

Jakob Skovgaard is a researcher at Lunds Universitet, Sweden, undertaking research on EU and international climate change policy. From 2007 to 2010 he worked in the international climate change team of the Danish Finance Ministry, his responsibilities covering inter alia international fossil fuel subsidy reform. His recent publications include articles in Global Environmental Politics, the Journal of Common Market Studies, International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, World Development and Environmental Politics, and a special issue of International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics.
Harro van Asselt is Professor of Climate Law and Policy in the Law School of the University of Eastern Finland (UEF), and a Senior Research Fellow with the Stockholm Environment Institute. He is Editor of the Review of European, Comparative and International Environmental Law. He was previously employed at the University of Oxford and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He has published widely, including in Nature Climate Change, Global Policy, Global Governance, Regulation & Governance, Climatic Change, Global Environmental Politics, Environmental Politics, and Climate Policy. He is the author of The Fragmentation of Global Climate Governance (2014).