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Fossil-fuel firms receive US subsidies worth $31bn each year, study finds. Guardian Dharna Noor 9 Sept 2025Figure calculated by Oil Change International has more than doubled since 2017 but is likely a vast understatement. The US currently subsidizes the fossil-fuelindustry to the tune of nearly $31bn per year, according to a new analysis. That figure, calculated by the environmental campaign group Oil Change International, has more than doubled since 2017. And it is likely a vast understatement, due to the difficulty of quantifying the financial gains from some government supports, and to a lack of transparency and reliable data from government sources, the group says. These handouts pose a massive barrier to decarbonization, says the new report, which experts have long warned is urgently necessary to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis. “These subsidies allow for new production that would not otherwise occur,” said Collin Rees, US program manager at Oil Change International and the primary author of the new analysis. “They also, to an enormous extent, line the pockets of shareholders and investors and fossil fuel executives.” For the analysis, Oil Change International totaled up tax breaks, lower rates to acquire land and other resources, direct appropriations, and other financial support from the US and government-funded groups, using the definition of fossil fuel subsidies established by the World Trade Organization. All told, US subsidies allow the sector to receive stunning 30,000% returns on investments, the authors found.
The Guardian has contacted the American Petroleum Institute, the nation’s fossil-fuel lobbying group, for comment.Among the biggest subsidies the US offers oil companies, the report found, is a federal tax rule allowing corporations to credit taxes and royalties they pay to foreign governments on overseas income against their domestic tax bills, to avoid being taxed twice. Another major support measure is a tax credit for capturing carbon, which is often framed as a climate solution but is primarily used to extract hard-to-reach reserves in a practice known as enhanced oil recovery. Amid pressure from campaigners and United Nations climate experts, at least 53 countries reformed their fossil-fuel subsidies between 2015 and 2020, according to the Swiss research group Global Subsidies Initiative. In 2021, Joe Biden also vowed to begin eliminating subsidies for planet-heating energy sources.
“Unlike previous administrations, I don’t think the federal government should give handouts to big oil,” Biden said following his inauguration in 2021. Yet the US is moving in the wrong direction on the issue, the new report found: Trump’s signature tax-and-spend bill, which the president signed in July, is poised to hand fossil-fuel companies an additional $4bn per year across the next decade, the analysis found.Among the biggest supports for the oil industry in the megabill are expanded credits for carbon capture and a lowering of already sub-market royalty rates for coal, oil and gas production on public lands. Those enhanced supports could end up being even more valuable to the oil industry in later years, Rees says. Another provision in the bill, for which oil companies lobbied, can allow those companies to avoid the corporate minimum tax which Biden established during his presidency......read on https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/sep/09/fossil-fuels-subisidies-study
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Where Do Emissions Come From? 4 Charts Explain Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Sector WRI December 5, 2024 Mengpin Ge, Johannes Friedrich and Leandro Vigna Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions grew by 51% from 1990 to 2021. These emissions are causing the planet to warm at an alarming rate and contributing to the increasingly devastating storms, floods, fires and heatwaves the world is now grappling with. But where exactly do emissions come from? WRI's Climate Watch platform publishes comprehensive emissions data for all countries, sectors and gases, offering insight into the root causes of the climate crisis and where the world must take action to solve it. We analyzed the data to explain what's causing the most greenhouse gas emissions globally......Today, greenhouse gas emissions can be traced back to five economic sectors:
• Energy
• Agriculture
• Industrial processes
• Waste
• Land use, land-use change and forestry
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Come from 5 Sectors........To understand where emissions come from, it's helpful to break them down by both sectors (such as energy or agriculture) and "end uses," or the specific activities that emit greenhouse gases. The energy sector produces the most greenhouse gas emissions by far, accounting for a whopping 75.7% worldwide. Agriculture is the second highest emitting sector after energy, accounting for 11.7% of global emissions. Major emitters in this sector include livestock farming and agricultural soils, such as methane from manure. Agriculture can also drive emissions through land-use change and energy use......keep on scrolling through the website......https://www.wri.org/insights/4-charts-explain-greenhouse-gas-emissions-countries-and-sectors
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Cop29 will focus on mobilising the trillion dollars a year needed for developing nations to curb their emissions as they improve the lives of their citizens and to protect them against the now inevitable climate chaos to come. The summit also aims to increase the ambition of the next round of countries’ emission-cutting pledges, due in February.The new data comes from the Global Carbon Budget project, a collaboration of more than 100 experts led by Prof Pierre Friedlingstein, at the University of Exeter, UK. “The impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly dramatic, yet we still see no sign that burning of fossil fuels has peaked. Time is running out and world leaders meeting at Cop29 must bring about rapid and deep cuts to fossil fuel emissions.”
Prof Corinne Le Quéré, at the University of East Anglia, UK, said: “The transition away from fossil fuels is clearly not happening yet at the global level, but our report does highlight that there are 22 countries that have decreased their emissions significantly [while their economies grew].” The 22 countries, representing a quarter of global emissions, include the UK, Germany and the US. The calculation of 2024 emissions is based on the data available up to October and estimates for the final months of the year, which have been accurate in the past. More than 37bn tonnes will be emitted in 2024, about 4m tonnes an hourGas emissions show the biggest annual increase, 2.4%, thanks to increased use in China and elsewhere. Oil burning increased by 0.9%, driven in particular by international flights, while coal emissions are expected to rise marginally by 0.2%.
The emissions of China, the world’s biggest polluter, are expected to rise slightly. “It has had another record year of growth in renewable power, but coal power also kept growing due to even faster growth in electricity demand from hi-tech industries and residential consumption,” said Jan Ivar Korsbakken, at Center for International Climate Research (Cicero) in Norway. Emissions from oil in China have probably peaked owing to the boom in electric vehicles.......read on https://www.theguardian.com/
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NASA Emissions from Fossil Fuels Continue to Rise. NASA March 5, 2024 Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels rose again in 2023, reaching record levels, according to estimates from an international team of scientists. The continued rise in emissions from the burning of oil, coal, and natural gas is impeding progress to limit global warming, the scientists said. The finding is part of an annual checkup on Earth’s carbon cycle called the Global Carbon Budget. In this annual assessment, scientists quantify how much carbon was added to the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels and land-use change, and how much carbon was removed from the atmosphere and stored on land and in the ocean. Scientists’ early analysis of 2023 data shows that emissions from fossil fuels rose 1.1 percent in 2023 compared to 2022 levels, bringing total fossil emissions in 2023 to 36.8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. When including other sources—such as deforestation and the extreme wildfire season in Canada—total emissions in 2023 were estimated to be 40.9 billion metric tons. Both 2023 and 2022 saw record increases in carbon dioxide from fossil fuels, according to the analysis“Emissions are heading the wrong direction that we need to limit global warming,” said Ben Poulter, a co-author of the report and scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased from approximately 278 parts per million in 1750, the beginning of the industrial era, to 420 parts per million in 2023. The rise in heat-trapping carbon dioxide—and other greenhouse gases—is the primary reason for the planet’s soaring temperatures. The global surface temperature in 2023 was 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.1 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the average for NASA’s baseline period (1951-1980), making it the hottest year on record.
The visualizations in the article show the flow of carbon dioxide into, around, and out of Earth’s atmosphere over the course of 2021 (the most recent full year of available data). They rely on NASA’s Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS), a modeling and data assimilation system used for studying the Earth’s weather and climate. To depict where carbon is being emitted or taken up, researchers used data on vegetation, human population density, and the location of wildfires, power plants, roads, railways, and other infrastructure.The carbon dioxide shown comes from four major sources: fossil fuels (yellow), burning biomass (red), land ecosystems (green), and the ocean (blue). Though the land and ocean are both carbon sinks—which means they store more carbon than they emit by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—they can be sources at certain times and places. The green and blue dots represent carbon that was absorbed by the land and ocean. “Amazingly, the ocean and land continue to absorb about half of the carbon we emit,” Poulter said. “Only about 44 percent of emissions stay in the atmosphere each year, slowing the rate of climate change, but causing ocean acidification and altering how land ecosystems function.” The proportion of carbon dioxide that stays in the atmosphere, known as the airborne fraction, has remained remarkably stable over the past 60 years, even with the continued increase in human-caused emissions. But scientists question whether and for how long that stability will continue......read on https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/152519/emissions-from-fossil-fuels-continue-to-rise
A VIEW fROM THE OTHER SIDE.....Coal is Now on the Same Official List as Lithium, Nickel, and Cobalt.
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As of Q2 2025, coal-fired generation in the U.S. is up 14% year over year. Even as climate lobbyists pound the podium, utilities across the country are quietly postponing coal plant retirements and restarting mothballed facilities. Why? Because when the chips are down and AI needs to stay up, coal delivers. From Punchline to Powerhouse: Coal Named a “Critical Mineral” In April, President Trump dropped a bombshell that shocked the global energy markets… Coal, particularly metallurgical coal, is now a U.S. critical mineral. https://www.wealthdaily.
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