Taxes, subsidies, and other economic instruments provide important market signals that can influence the behaviour of producers and consumers. Policy INstruments for the Environment is a unique database, gathering key quantitative and qualitative information on six types of policy instruments, in 80 countries – OECD members and many others.

This brochure summarizes the policy recommendations of a World Bank upcoming publication: Fiscal Policies for Development and Climate Action. The report is a call to action for Finance Ministers. It highlights the fundamental role that fiscal instruments can play as a cost-efficient way to reduce climate emissions and enhance development.  It calls for environmental taxes and the elimination of fossil fuels subsidies to ensure that energy prices reflect all externalities.

Energy subsidies have wide-ranging economic consequences. While aimed at protecting consumers, subsidies aggravate fiscal imbalances, crowd-out priority public spending, and depress private investment, including in the energy sector. Subsidies also distort resource allocation by encouraging excessive energy consumption, artificially promoting capital-intensive industries, reducing incentives for investment in renewable energy, and accelerating the depletion of natural resources.

The Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition brings together leaders from government, private sector, academia, and civil society to expand the use of carbon pricing policies. Through the CPLC, partners have the opportunity to showcase government and private sector action, highlight the business and environmental case for carbon pricing, and work with their peers to move the discussion forward.  

Published in November 2017, the PMR technical note, Establishing Scaled-up Crediting Program Baselines under the Paris Agreement: Issues and Options, offers guidance and identifies options for developing baselines for scaled-up crediting programs under the Paris Agreement

In the first part of the course, economists from the IMF will introduce the definition and measurement of subsidies, and then describe the economic, social, and environmental implications of subsidies. The second part of the course has two principal purposes: first, to review what works best in energy subsidy reform, in light of country experiences globally; and second, to illustrate successes and failures in particular country contexts by summarizing some case studies.

While the potential adverse effects of fossil fuel subsidy reform are well documented for households, the literature has largely ignored the effect of subsidy reform on firms’ competitiveness. This paper discusses how firms are affected by, and respond to, energy price increases caused by subsidy reforms. It highlights that cost increases (both direct and indirect) do not necessarily reflect competitiveness losses, since firms have various ways to mitigate and pass on price shocks.

This learning builds on the successful report, ‘Emissions Trading in Practice: Handbook for Design and Implementation’, developed by the Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR) and International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP).

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included more than $90 billion in strategic clean energy investments intended to promote job creation and promote deployment of low-carbon technologies. In terms of spending, the clean energy package has been described as the nation’s “biggest energy bill in history.” To provide a preliminary assessment of the Recovery Act’s clean energy package, this paper reviews the rationale, design, and implementation of the act.

On December 18, 2010, Iran increased domestic energy and agricultural prices by up to 20 times, making it the first major oil-exporting country to reduce substantially implicit energy subsidies. This paper reviews the economic and technical issues involved in the planning and early implementation of the reform, including the transfers to households and the public relations campaign that were critical to the success of the reform. It also looks at the reform from a chronological standpoint, in particular in the final phases of the preparation.