Maksimovich said
The first changes to cutting emissions and fossil fuel growth is increased transparency in both FF production and usage and the removal of Ff subsidies.
I doubt that is the first place to put our emphasis, although it is one, along with removing the subsidies for renewable energy and the many other distortions we’ve imposed on energy markets over the past 50 odd years.
To convince me that removing fossil fuel subsidies is the first place we need to focus our efforts you’d need to show me that the subsidies for fossil fuels (i.e. coal and gas, but not oil) are substantially affecting the selection of electricity generation technology for new builds. And you need to make the case for the countries that are, and soon will be, the largest emitters – e.g. China, India and USA. Because, I am fairly sure it is not a major factor in the developing countries, which are, after all, the most important for cutting future emissions growth.
For interest, in Australia, 80% of our electricity is generated by coal but the subsidies for coal are small, so I doubt this is a high priority place to start – UNLESS it is part of a bigger drive to remove all distortions to energy markets, especially the distortions to the cost of nuclear that we’ve imposed over the past 50 years or so (as a result of nuclear and radiation phobia).