Fossil fuel subsidy reform is recognised as a vital component of the transition to a sustainable future. A group of 12 countries issued a Ministerial Declaration on Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform (WT/MIN(17)/54) on the occasion of the WTO’s Eleventh Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires in December 2017. Drawing on the knowledge and policy options generated by ICTSD and partners over recent years, this policy brief Reforming Fossil Fuel Subsidies through the Trade System is intended to support WTO members in building on this declaration.
The paper Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform in the WTO: Options for Constraining Dual Pricing in the Multilateral Trading System discusses the practice of energy dual pricing in the broader context of fossil fuel subsidy reform.
The present paper seeks to examine the ways in which current trade policies and frameworks enable or hold back the pressing need for further development of clean energy. Based on this analysis, it identifies a set of policy options for the global trade system to support the scale-up of CETs.