Ambassador Clare Kelly of New Zealand, coordinator of the FFSR Initiative, briefed individuals on the outcomes of a casual planning assembly of co-sponsors in March, which had taken inventory of progress made in 2024 and developed a plan to information work throughout the three pillars in 2025.
Below the third pillar — “figuring out and addressing dangerous fossil gas subsidies” — devoted classes have been deliberate to deepen understanding of particular subsidy classes and to facilitate experience-sharing amongst members on sensible reform pathways. In that context, one of many devoted classes, which adopted on from an preliminary dialogue in 2024, aimed to additional look at the several types of manufacturing subsidies in order to discover their environmental and commerce impacts.
As a part of this devoted session, the Asian Improvement Financial institution introduced its Vitality Transition Mechanism and outlined efforts to assist the accelerated retirement of coal-fired energy vegetation within the Asia-Pacific area. Carbon Tracker, an unbiased monetary assume tank, offered an evaluation of the impression of local weather change on capital markets and fossil gas investments and highlighted the dangers and alternatives, in addition to the potential pathways towards a low-carbon future. The non-governmental group Past Fossil Fuels shared insights on Europe’s coal exit methods.
Below the primary pillar — “enhanced transparency” — the WTO Secretariat offered an replace on efforts to make use of the Commerce Coverage Evaluation Mechanism to extend transparency with regard to fossil gas subsidies and their reform, having documented a rise in questions on fossil gas subsidies and their reform throughout 2024, with greater than 46 questions requested throughout 15 commerce coverage critiques (TPRs). This clearly led to a rise within the extent of data being offered on this subject in TPRs. Extra WTO avenues for additional stakeholder engagement are additionally being explored.
Co-sponsors expressed assist for the systematic inclusion of fossil gas subsidy–associated questions within the TPR course of. They emphasised the worth of transparency and of accumulating a fuller and extra comparable info base throughout a broader group of WTO members.
Below the second pillar — “disaster assist measures” — co-sponsors continued to share experiences regarding the design, adjustment and phase-out of non permanent fossil gas subsidies launched in response to current power crises. Co-sponsors additionally continued to develop draft tips geared toward guaranteeing that such measures stay focused, clear and non permanent.
Along with this work, the Worldwide Institute for Sustainable Improvement (IISD) introduced a current publication titled “Choices for Worldwide Agreements on Fossil Gas Subsidies”.
In concluding, Ambassador Kelly famous that the following FFSR assembly, scheduled for 11 July 2025, will proceed to facilitate experience-sharing and to deepen discussions on different classes of fossil gas subsidies, according to WTO members’ pursuits. She thanked individuals for their engagement and inspired continued collaboration within the lead-up to the 14th Ministerial Convention (MC14), to be held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in March 2026.
The FFSR initiative seeks to attain the rationalization, phasing-out or elimination of dangerous fossil gas subsidies by means of using present mechanisms or the event of latest pathways to reform, and encourages WTO members to share info and experiences to advance discussions on the WTO. Extra details about the FFSR initiative is out there right here.
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