Hidden price tags: how ending fossil fuel subsidies would benefit our health
The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) has launched the report "Hidden Price Tags: How ending fossil fuel subsidies would benefit our health" providing the first-ever comparison of fossil fuel subsidies and the costs to health associated with air pollution from fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels causes deadly air pollution and climate change. Yet virtually all governments spend huge amounts of public money – their citizens’ taxes – on supporting the oil, gas and coal industry in fossil fuel energy production. Despite nearly a decade-old commitment to end such financial support, the report reveals that on average, in G20 countries, the health costs associated with fossil fuels, are over six times higher than the subsidies:2,758 billion USDvs 444 billion USD (2,600 billion Euro vs 416 billion Euro). Every year air pollution from mostly fossil fuel combustion cuts short the lives of an estimated 6.5 million people worldwide because of respiratory tract infections, strokes, heart attacks, lung cancer and chronic lung disease. The costs to health from the resulting air pollution, climate change and environmental degradation are not carried by the industry but paid by society.