How to Eliminate Subsidies Once and for All

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Subsidies are considered essential tools to alleviate poverty. But they cut both ways as we illustrated above. Overuse of fertilizers can actually backfire and lead to resource depletion. Nearly 57% of fishing subsidies worldwide directly contribute to overfishing. Countries around the world actively spent nearly $5.77 billion in 2021 to lower the price of oil, gas and coal.

Globally, governments subsidise things like fuel for general consumption and fertiliser for agricultural use. They do it so that the steep price rises don’t make it hard for people to buy these commodities. Economies, especially developing ones like ours thrive on this after all. But a couple of days ago, the World Bank suggested that if governments stop spending trillions of dollars in subsidies, it could actually help fight climate change. So in today’s episode for 20th June 2023, we talk about the practicality of this premise.