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The Politics of Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Their Reform

Skovgaard, Jakob, Harro van Asselt (editors). 2018. The Politics of Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Their Reform. Cambridge University Press.

Abstract

Fossil fuel subsidies strain public budgets, and contribute to climate change and local air pollution. Despite widespread agreement among experts about the benefits of reforming fossil fuel subsidies, repeated international commitments to eliminate them, and valiant efforts by some countries to reform them, they continue to persist. This book helps explain this conundrum, by exploring the politics of fossil fuel subsidies and their reform.

Bringing together scholars and practitioners, the book offers new case studies both from countries that have undertaken subsidy reform, and those that have yet to do so. It explores the roles of various intergovernmental and non-governmental institutions in promoting fossil fuel subsidy reform at the international level, as well as conceptual aspects of fossil fuel subsidies. This is essential reading for researchers and practitioners, and students of political science, international relations, law, public policy, and environmental studies.

The book:

  • Contains the first academic collection of analyses of the global and domestic politics of fossil fuel subsidies and their reform
  • Offers new insights into why – notwithstanding its obvious benefits – fossil fuel subsidy reform sometimes fails and sometimes succeeds
  • Applies an analytical framework allowing readers to place fossil fuel subsidies within a wider political science context

 

With expert contributions from:

Shalu Agrawal, Aaron Atteridge, Steven Bernstein, Mathieu Blondeel, Jesse Burton, Kathryn Chelminski, Karthik Ganesan, Ana Carolina González Espinosa, Matthew Hoffmann, Abhishek Jain, Phil Johnstone, Doug Koplow, Kati Kulovesi, Nathan Lemphers, Tawney Lott, Laura Merrill, Tom S. H. Moerenhout, Peter Newell, Angélica Puertas Velasco, Britta Rennkamp, Vernon Rive, Jehan Sauvage, Michelle Scobie, Jakob Skovgaard, Ronald Steenblik, Claudia Strambo, Christina Timiliotis, Harro van Asselt, Thijs Van de Graaf, Laurie van der Burg and Shelagh Whitley

This title is also available as Open Access.

Link to publication here.

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