Washington, D.C. — At this year’s G-20 meeting, the results of the opening round of fossil fuel subsidy peer reviews were released. The United States and China were the first to participate, and the outcome was an encouraging start: Both countries made good faith efforts to identify their fossil fuel subsidies; engaged in constructive dialogue with one another, as well as several other countries and institutions with relevant expertise; and discovered gaps and opportunities for progress.
The Center for American Progress released an issue brief that examines the findings of the U.S. and Chinese peer reviews and makes the case for how the process can be improved and strengthened going forward.
“The United States and China should be commended for stepping up as volunteers for this first peer review round, and the results indicate that they both took it seriously,” said Pete Ogden, CAP Senior Fellow and co-author of the brief. “Due to this start, there is an opportunity to grow the peer review process into something that could be a fixture of the G-20 process and an integral part of its fossil subsidy phaseout efforts.”
The paper calls for establishing a system for self-reporting on progress in subsidy phaseout and having countries that complete the peer review process take on an advisory role for those currently going through it in order to pass on best practices and share lessons learned from their own experiences. Civil society groups and academic institutions should also be given opportunities to provide input into this process at the front end so that participating countries can pull from their technical expertise and insights.
Click here to read the paper.
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, contact Tom Caiazza at [email protected] or 202.481.7141.