Energy Subsidies - Lessons Learned in Assessing their Impact and Designing Policy Reforms

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education

ISSN: 1467-6370

Article publication date: 1 September 2004

260

Keywords

Citation

(2004), "Energy Subsidies - Lessons Learned in Assessing their Impact and Designing Policy Reforms", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 5 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijshe.2004.24905cae.004

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Energy Subsidies - Lessons Learned in Assessing their Impact and Designing Policy Reforms

Energy Subsidies – Lessons Learned in Assessing their Impact and Designing Policy Reforms

Edited by Anja von Moltke, Colin McKee and Trevor MorganGreenleaf Publishing, published in Association with the United Nations Environment Programme2004 296 pp.ISBN 1 874719 11 X£35.00/US$65.00

Keywords: Energy, Subsidies, Regeneration

The need to reform energy subsidies was one of the pressing issues highlighted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Many types of subsidy, especially those that encourage the production and use of fossil fuel, and other non-renewable forms of energy, are harmful to the environment. They can also have high financial and economic costs, and often only bring few benefits to the people for whom they are intended.

Removing, reducing or restructuring such energy subsidies is helpful for the environment and the economy at the same time. Potential social costs in terms of employment in the conventional energy industry or reduced access to energy could be addressed by redirecting the money formerly spent on subsidies to income support, health, environment, education or regional development programmes.

Subsidies can have certain positive consequences, particularly where they are aimed at encouraging more sustainable energy production and use. Temporary support for renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies to overcome market barriers, and measures to improve poor or rural households’ access to modern, commercial forms of energy, for instance, could be positive measures in support of sustainable development.

Based on ground-breaking work undertaken by UNEP and the International Energy Agency, this book aims to raise awareness of the actual and potential impacts of energy subsidies and provide guidance to policy-makers on how to design and implement energy subsidy reforms. It provides methodologies for analysing the impact of subsidies and their reform, and reviews experiences with energy subsidies in a number of countries and regions. Drawing on these case studies, it analyses the lessons learned as well as the policy implications, and provides guidance on how to overcome resistance to reform.

The book provides an analytical framework which aims to set the scene for the detailed discussion of energy subsidy issues at the country level. It considers how subsidies are defined, how they can be measured, how big they are and how their effects can be assessed.

Reviews or inspection copies can be ordered at: www.greenleaf-publishing.com

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