Fossil fuel subsidy reform in sub-Saharan Africa: from rhetoric to reality
Worldwide, a significant proportion of the private sector receives some level of support, interventions and subsidies from the public sector. In the specific case of energy subsidies (of which fossil fuels are a subset) their use has been historically linked to supporting energy security, domestic energy production, and access to energy. In recent years, however, accounting for the full economic, social and environmental costs and benefits of subsidies for fossil fuels, along with the development of other government interventions to achieve the same objectives, has led to demands to start removing them. This report outlines the economic, social, and environmental costs of fossil fuel subsidies; emerging evidence of the benefits to be derived from their reform; and opportunities and processes to support such reform.