Fossil fuel subsidy reform ^*

News

Participation

Coordinated by New Zealand, the FFSR initiative is open to all WTO members. It currently has WTO members as co-sponsors. The initiative actively seeks the involvement of stakeholders from the private sector, civil society, international organizations and academia, who support discussions through technical expertise, experience-sharing and transparency about their activities.

Meetings

Key documents

FFSR Ministerial Statement, 10 June 2022	WT/MIN(21)/9/Rev.2 (Revision of 14 December 2021 statement: WT/MIN(21)/9/Rev.1)
FFSR Work Plan 2022-23, 10 June 2022	WT/MIN(22)/8

Objective of the initiative

Building on efforts from the 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11) in December 2017, a Ministerial Statement was issued by a group of WTO members in December 2021 (WT/MIN(21)/9/Rev.1). It was subsequently revised in June 2022 (WT/MIN(21)/9/Rev.2).

The statement highlights the need to elaborate concrete options for rationalizing and phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies by sharing information and experiences among members ahead of the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13). The statement pledges to take into account the specific needs and conditions of developing countries and to minimize the possible adverse impacts on their development in a manner that protects the poor and the affected communities.

The FFSR initiative is part of broader discussions at the international level through which WTO members aim to address issues of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption. These broader discussions include UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 (c) of the 2030 Agenda, the G20, the G7, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability, the V20 Group of Finance Ministers from climate-vulnerable economies, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development.

State of play

The FFSR co-sponsors adopted a Work Plan (WT/MIN(22)/8) for the year 2022-23 at the 12th Ministerial Conference in June 2022. The Work Plan sets up a forum to take stock of international efforts on FFSR, to consider the development and social aspects of FFSR and to discuss next steps towards MC13. Seeking to meet three times from 2022 to 2023, the forum will map other relevant international, regional and domestic initiatives and highlight the importance of coordinating work under the different processes while avoiding duplication of work.

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* The documents on this page relate to an initiative among a group of WTO members and are not part of a multilaterally agreed WTO process. Back to text