Fossil subsidies undermine climate policy

Climate change is largely caused by the increase in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, and that increase is primarily due to the use of fossil fuels (IPCC, 2023). Effective climate policy therefore begins with phasing out the use of fossil fuels. Subsidies for the use of fossil fuels do just the opposite and thus undermine climate policy. Compare it to turning on the air conditioning and heating at the same time: in net terms you achieve nothing except high costs.

Thus Patrick Huntjens and colleagues in an opinion article (in Dutch) in Financieel Dagblad