Paris—30 November 2015—The Paris climate change talks saw an unprecedented coalition of leaders supporting the need to end the billions of dollars spent every year on subsidising fossil fuels. 40 countries and hundreds of businesses and influential organisations have stood behind the Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform Communiqué presented to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.

At the handover of the Communiqué to COP21, Stefan Löfven, Prime Minister of Sweden, welcomed a packed audience of over 500 people and the world’s media, reminding them of the Communiqué’s words on the need to “increase efforts to phase out subsidies to fossil fuels through three key principles: policy transparency, ambitious reform and targeted support for the poorest.”

Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway, suggested, “The OECD commitment to mobilise US$100 billion by 2020 should be followed by a joint endeavour to phase out all fossil fuel subsidies”. She explained, “The question now, seems to be, how can we afford not to remove fossil fuel subsidies?”, adding, “All countries, developed and developing, including Norway, should regularly explore opportunities to reduce fossil fuel subsidies.”

John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand said, “We have one message: the time for action, global action, on fossil fuel subsidies is now,” explaining that countries should remove subsidies “immediately or phase them out” and “this is absolutely vital if the world is to succeed in substantially reducing emissions. As with any subsidy reform, change will take courage and strong political will, but with oil prices at record lows and the global focus on a low carbon future – the timing for this reform has never been better.” Rachel Kyte, World Bank Special Envoy for Climate Change, urged this action, “All the economic evidence is that to delay costs you more.”

Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark, explained how his country was impressed with the increased attention that fossil-fuel subsidy reform has gained in a short space of time. He noted Denmark’s own contribution to this, having “promoted the agenda with leading international organisations… engaged civil society, and key decision makers and… supported concrete reforms in developing countries”. He stated Denmark’s commitment to continuing to support the issue in coming years.

Upon receiving the Communiqué and commending the initiative, Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, said that two detrimental myths needed to be put to rest once and for all.  Myth number one: fossil fuel subsidies help the poor.  She pointed out that “when you really look at the numbers, you see that it is those of the highest consumption of fuels—which is not the poorest—who are actually benefiting the most. We need to puncture that balloon once and for all.”  Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General, noted the significant opportunity costs of this, emphasising that situations where countries are spending more on fossil fuel subsidies than education are a “total misallocation of resources”.

Myth number two: fossil-fuel subsidies are only made up of subsidies for fuel consumption. Figueres addressed by this cautioning against the temptation to “increase subsidies again to make up for the losses” caused by the current low world oil price. She argued that we are at a “crucial moment of either increasing subsidies and locking ourselves in, or freeing ourselves.”

The Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform Communiqué launched in April of this year, was spearheaded by the Friends of Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform, the United States and France, and supported by The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group and the Global Subsidies Initiative. Take action and endorse the Communiqué.

Read the press release

Watch a video of the event

View tweets about the event using the hashtag #EndFFS (1,000 tweets reached over 2 million people)

Read the Global Subsidies Initiative blog

More pictures from the event: