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Ronald Steenblik

@ronsteenblik.bsky.social

2.2K followers 850 following 5.6K posts

Retired OECD staff member. I post on trade, environment, energy (especially fossil fuel subsidies). Supporting QUNO's work on identifying & reducing subsidies to #plastics. Commenting in my personal capacity. Once told by Mel Brooks: "You have no taste!"

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Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · Oct 15

1⃣ Since 2013, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has published biennially global estimates of what they call "explicit" and "implicit" #FossilFuelSubsidies.

Those estimates are widely cited, but also widely misinterpreted & misrepresented. And some things they include shouldn't be.

A long 🧵.

Fossil Fuel Subsidies

Subsidies are intended to protect consumers by keeping prices low, but they come at a high cost. Subsidies have sizable fiscal costs (leading to higher taxes/borrowing or lower spending), promote inef...

www.imf.org

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Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 21m

It still works!

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 42m

Good one! (Wish I’d thought of that 🤣.)

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 46m

I guess this place counts as one. We both tied the Bot.

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Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 22h

🤔

(From my Google alerts.)

Screenshot of two Google alerts from 13 October 2025, one headlined “New Zealand strengthens and preserves ambitious targets” and the other “New Zealand government weakens methane target and climate policy package”.

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 1d

Makes me think of a “Guided by Voices” (OK, technically Boston Spaceships) album.

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Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 1d

… just as big if all the world’s vehicles were EVs.

See my 📌ed skeet.

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 1d

… usually non-existent carbon and other taxes on the energy they consumed. And of that $5.7 trillion, $1.2 trillion are “vehicle externalities” — the social costs of congestion (time wasted in traffic) and accidents — and aren’t even directly linked to FF consumption but to DRIVING: they would be …

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 1d

Most of the $1.3 trillion is price subsidies to consumers of fossil fuels in energy-exporting nations. The other $5.7 trillion of the IMF’s global estimates for 2022 are not “subsidies”, and neither government hand-outs or tax breaks, but how much more the IMF reckons consumers should have paid in …

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 1d

… increasing taxes to internalized consumption-related externalities.

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 1d

… of a subsidy that is aligned with the IMF and not the WTO. Worse, they don’t seem to feel they need to explain that’s what they mean, so after every one of their presentations I (as an observer) as for the floor and point out that when the UNDP speaks of “subsidy” reform what they really mean is …

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 1d

Link to an open-access book chapter I wrote on what the WTO is doing on fossil fuels and suggesting it could up its game.

Frankly, the FFSR working group has low energy, and a low participation rate by co-sponsors. And they keep inviting the UNDP to present, even though that IGO uses a definition …

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 8d

Yay! My book chapter ("Emerging into the Light: Fossil Fuel Subsidies at the WTO") — which explores the pathways that have brought fossil fuel subsidies to the WTO, progress made by the forty-eight WTO Members of the Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform (FFSR) Initiative through March 2025, ...

utppublishing.com

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 2d

Very similar experience. Even at line 6 I had two potential words. Phew!

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Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 2d

Green-energy projects in Qatar or the USA stopped?

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 3d

Well done! You beat the Bot!

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Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 4d

Indeed, especially with no green squares preceding it. We both tied the Bot today.

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Reposted by Ronald Steenblik

Borderlex @borderlex.net · 4d

1/ Our Week in Brussels column:

🔸ideal for those who don't want to be swamped by trade news daily
🔸.... but want a good insider look at what's cooking in trade policy in the EU.

borderlex.net/2025/10/10/w...

Week in Brussels: Due diligence, deforestation, Singapore - Borderlex

Our weekly roundup of EU trade policy news

borderlex.net

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Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 4d

Fossil fuel CONSUMPTION subsidies. (The IEA doesn’t estimate fossil fuel production subsidies, which are an order of magnitude smaller.)

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 4d

First in the line of succession. 🤮

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 4d

Note: missing from the IMF estimates are any externalities related to production of fossil fuels, like land disturbance and degradation, methane leaks, and oil spills.

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Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 4d

My strong recommendation: Cite the @oilchange.bsky.social
estimates of actual FF subsidies (🔗), which they put at $35 billion a year, and if you want to mention externalities related to combustion, cite the $430 billion (+ VAT) number from the IMF, but call them what they are: externalities.

Paying for Climate Chaos: U.S. Federal Subsidies for Fossil Fuel Production - Oil Change International

“Paying for Climate Chaos” reveals the staggering scope of federal government subsidies for fossil fuel production, est. at a whopping $34.8 billion per year.

oilchange.org

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Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 4d

... of congestion (time wasted in traffic) and accidents — would be just as large if all 🚗s on U.S. roads were EVs. Those aren't even un-taxed externalities related to fossil fuel use per se, much less "subsidies" to gasoline and diesel.

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 4d

... the IMF's estimate of how much U.S. consumers of fossil fuels should have paid more in (non-existent) carbon and other taxes on the fuel they purchased. Of that, 55% relate to greenhouse gases and air pollutants, but 45% relate to DRIVING. Yet those "vehicle externalities" — the social costs ...

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 4d

The actual IMF number is $757 billion for 2022. And I contest much of it. For one, of that total, only $3 billion are producer subsidies — clearly an undercount. The remainder, $754 billion are not "tax breaks" according to standard definitions (there has to be a tax to provide a break on), but ...

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 4d

“… national fossil fuel subsidies from governments totalled $7 trillion globally in 2022, …”. Um, no. A complete mischaracterization of the (admittedly confusing) IMF numbers, most of which are estimates of externalities, and very little of which represents “government spending”. See my 📌ed skeet.

Ronald Steenblik @ronsteenblik.bsky.social · 4d

See my 📌ed skeet.