COP18 (30/11/12) – David Turnbull, Campaigns Director at Oilchange International talks about the need to remove fossil fuel subsidies. He says that their estimates put these subsides at $1 trillion per year.

She says while some of this goes on helping to reduce the costs of gas and other fossil fuels for consumers in developing countries, in rich countries these subsidies are going straight to the producers including some of the largest oil, coal and gas companies in the world.

He quotes the International Energy Agency who said that two thirds of the known fossil fuels have to stay in the ground to keep temperature rises below 2°C.

He says while in the US, the potential of a fiscal cliff, and the need to raise revenues has some politicians interested in the argument for abolishing such subsidies, he warns that they are fighting against some of the biggest lobbyists in the world.

In Doha, he says, they want to see a clear commitment from governments to close these loopholes for companies and want to see this issue tackled under the Durban Platform discussions as a way to increase mitigation ambition both pre-2020 and post-2020.