Energy Subsidies: Lessons Learned in Assessing their Impact - UNEP

Energy Subsidies: Lessons Learned in Assessing their Impact and Designing Policy Reforms
Figure 3.2: IEA Hard Coal Production, 2000
Source: IEA (2001b).
The amount of IEA hard-coal production receiving government financial assistance, as
measured by the PSE, has been declining over the last decade, both in absolute and in
percentage terms. Subsidised production has fallen by 55% since 1991. The main reasons for
the reduction are the programmed decreases in domestic production in these countries. Total
PSE assistance has dropped more slowly than production, by 53% in nominal terms since it
peaked in 1992 to a total of $5.8 billion in 2000 (see Figure 3.3). Germany accounts for
around 68% of this assistance and Spain for a further 13%.
25 The IEA is made up of all the OECD countries except Iceland, Mexico, Poland and the Slovak Republic.
26 Tonne of coal equivalent (tce) is a standard unit of measurement with an energy value of 29.3 GJ/tonne or 7 000
kcal/kg. 1 tce is equal to 0.7 toe (tonne of oil equivalent).
27 State aid for coal was reintroduced temporarily in the United Kingdom in April 2000 and ended in July 2002.
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