Biggest Obstacle to the Development of Renewables.

I'll add another, the total lack of private investments here in the U.S. especially as to the free market capitalism ideologies. And this while bottom line profits, with costs to consumers, are rising at record levels across the board

Fossil fuels received more than €320 billion in aid in 2010

Anyone who believes that renewable energies are the most subsidised forms of energy is wrong. Global subsidisation of fossil fuel consumption amounted to $409 billion – €321.3 billion – in 2010, said the International Energy Agency’s Chief Economist today. Fatih Birol said that this aid is the biggest obstacle to the development of renewables.

17 January 2012 - The information was made public today during the second day of the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi (UAE).

Fatih Birol noted that, in addition to aid for fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas), one of the major obstacles to the transition to a cleaner energy system is the financial and economic crisis that has led some leading European countries to reduce subsidies for renewable technologies.

The IEA Chief Economist recalled that between 2000 and 2010 the increase in the use of coal as an energy source was almost equal to the sum of the increase in diesel, natural gas, nuclear and renewables.

Moreover, the IEA’s World Energy Outlook shows that fuel subsidies are a very inefficient way of helping the poor: only 8% of the $409 billion spent on subsidising fossil fuels in 2010 reached 20% of the poorest people around the world.

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