This report examines how budgets can be greening by pricing carbon and cutting environmental harmful subsidies. The publication provides lessons on how greening the budget combines fiscal responsibility with the environmental sensibility that is inevitable for a sustainable future.
The overriding challenge for many European governments today is to reduce major fiscal deficits with the least collateral damage to the economy.
Fossil-fuel subsidies matter: for sustainable development; for government budgets; for the poor; for women; and for the environment. Subsidies amounted to $544 billion (2012) and are largest in MENA and Southeast Asia.
In a continent that is starved for energy and infrastructure, it is an enigma that India’s markets for energy efficiency have yet to take off. The authors of the report spent several months researching and debating this issue with stakeholders in India and around the world.