"The world’s leading economies have made lots of commitments lately about reducing carbon emissions, but their actions tell a different story. A report released Tuesday finds that between January 2020 and March 2021, G7 governments pumped $190 billion into supporting coal, oil, and gas, with the U.S. taking the prize for the most money spent on dirty industries.
The report, authored by UK-based international relief agency Tearfund and supported by a host of other groups, reviews all the G7 government funds given to energy industries in a 14-month period. The group includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the U.S. Around 80% was given to polluting industries with what the report calls no “green strings” attached. That is, no requirements that the recipients work to reduce emissions or clean up their acts. By comparison, the report finds, governments approved less than $150 billion in funding for “clean” forms of energy during that same time period.
“Investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency should be a top priority to decarbonize the G7 economies,” Lucille Dufour, a senior policy advisor at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, one of the groups that supported the report, said in a release. “But it will not pay off as long as G7 countries continue propping up the fossil fuel industry. At the G7 summit, all countries must shift international as well as domestic support away from fossil fuels, towards a just and fossil-free recovery.”"
