G7 Nations Spend More On Fossil Fuels Than Green Energy

Development charity Tearfund published a report in collaboration with the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Overseas Development Institute ahead of the G7 summit scheduled to take place in the UK. It found that G7 countries are spending billions of dollars more on fossil fuels than green energy. Between January 2020 and March 2021, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.S. and the UK pumped $189 billion into coal, oil and gas energy while only $147 billion was spent on clean energy. The transportation sector received the bulk of the funding, primarily due to the approval of large bailout plans for the automotive and aviation sectors during the early stages of the pandemic. The report's authors claim that these rescue packages were provided with very little incentives "to go green" and that they will sustain highly polluting industries for the forseeable future.

A mere 17 percent of commitments to fossil fuel intensive sectors had green strings attached and 83 percent did not include any climate targets or pollution reduction requirements. Describing the pandemic as a lost opportunity for G7 countries to support a transition to cleaner energy, the report says that funding based on green conditions needs to be the minimum approach and that only one in 10 dollars committed to the pandemic response benefited the cleanest energy measures. Along with direct funding for dirty forms of energy, some goverments rolled back regulations affecting the fossil fuel industry. This ranged from the introduction of fuel tax exemptions to the suspension of penalties for companies in breach of environmental regulations.