OECD Companion to the Inventory of Support Measures for Fossil Fuels 2021:Tracking progress in reforming support for fossil fuels

Chapter 1 draws on data compiled for the 2020 edition of the OECD Inventory to describe broad trends in the magnitude and nature of fossil-fuel subsidies in 50 OECD, G20 and European Union Eastern Partnership (EaP) economies, and how these relate to recent policy changes and reforms in-country. The chapter discusses the implications of the COVID-19 crisis, and resulting oil price crash, for reform. It includes sectoral breakdown of support measures, as well as an assessment of support measures in EaP countries and measures related to ocean sustainability, as part of ongoing efforts to enhance transparency of government support. Section 1.2 discusses efforts to track and reform fossil fuel subsidies in multilateral fora, including in the context of the G20’s framework for voluntary, reciprocal peer reviews and the Sustainable Development Goal fossil-fuel subsidy indicator 12.c.1. It looks at recent efforts to enhance the interpretation of tax expenditure data given the prevalence of tax expenditures in the measures documented by the Inventory.