General Resources on Coal Subsidies and Public Finance

• OECD’s “Inventory of Estimated Budgetary Support and Tax Expenditures for Fossil Fuels” – provides a summary of each of the 34 OECD countries’ budgetary and tax-related measures at the central-government level and for selected sub-national units of government. It includes an online database of quantitative estimates for a subset of producer and consumer subsidies for each country;
• IEA’s Coal Information report – provides coal data for 39 countries, including historical and current data on production, consumption (by industrial end use), reserves, exports, imports, prices, and CO₂ emissions. This information is useful for estimating the value of certain subsidies, e.g., price gap methodology, social cost of carbon, and exploration tax exemptions;
• IMF’s “Energy Subsidy Reform: Lessons and Implications” – provides several country case studies on fossil fuel subsidy reform and an appendix with oil, gas, and coal subsidies quantified as a percent of government revenue for every country.
• Country-based webpages of the multilateral development banks – provide information on projects and programs funded by the given MDB, including funding amount, project activities as well as other institutions’ participation. In addition to project investment, be sure to also look at policy lending operations, technical assistance, financial intermediaries and research papers, which give information on potential investment incentives/subsidies and policy reforms;
• Oil Change International’s Shift the Subsidies Website – tracks MDB- and ECA-subsidized finance, guarantees & policy lending to the energy sector, with project-by-project details including information on clean vs. fossil fuel funding, energy access, and exploration; national level subsidies to the energy sector;
• CEE Bankwatch Network’s Kings of Coal online toolkit – provides guidance on how to get information on public finance of coal by MDBs, ECAs, and bilateral development institutions with a focus on institutions important for Turkey and Southeast Europe, including the development banks of China and Germany.
• Earth Track’s “Ten Most Distortionary Energy Subsidies” – provides information on subsidies provided through water usage by thermal power generation.

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Coal Subsidy Resources, Organizations and Campaigns by Country

• Australia
  • Paid to Pollute:  A coalition of over 20 civil society organizations in Australia campaigning to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. http://paidtopollute.org.au/ 
• Indonesia
  • Greenpeace SE Asia: Working to stop coal projects and change policies affecting the coal sector, including the Central Java Coal Power Plant. See GP’s documents: How Coal Mining Hurts the Indonesian Economy; and The True Cost of Coal – Indonesia.
  • WALHI: Working to halt coal projects, including through exposing unpaid taxes by the coal mining sector. See article on WALHI’s efforts regarding unpaid coal mining taxes.
  • Oil Change International: Working with Indonesian partners (above) to expose and eliminate subsidies and public finance to coal in Indonesia. See OCI’s resources: Indonesia Subsidy Data; World Bank Accelerating Coal Development in Indonesia; Indonesia: Public Finance/Subsidies for Coal; and NGO Letter to the World Bank.
•  Japan
  • JBIC Coal Campaign: “No Coal! Go Green! No to JBIC’s coal financing!” led by JACSES, Kiko Network, and FOE Japan targeting the Central Java Coal Power Plant and beyond.
  • NGO Letter to Prime Minister Abe: The letter urges Japan to follow the United States and other countries’ pledges to stop financing coal overseas.
• Poland
  • Greenpeace Poland: The Hidden Bill for Coal (in Polish) provides subsidies granted to the coal sector (both mining and energy production) in Poland from 1990 to 2012. A brief containing a summary of the results in English is available on Greenpeace UK’s Energy Desk.
•  Romania
  • Greenpeace Romania: Cost of Coal to Romania – The Cost of Subsidies Received by Romanian Coal Industry Compared with Renewable Industry.
• United States
  • Sierra Club: Phasing Out Federal Subsidies for Coal covers a range of coal subsidies in the US, including tax-exempt bonds, loans, and loan guarantees.
  • Environmental Law Institute: Estimating US Government Spending on Coal found that the US government provided approximately $25.4 billion in financial support to coal from 2002 to 2010.
• Turkey
  • CEE Bankwatch: Kings of Coal on-line toolkit – provides guidance on how to get information on public finance of coal by MDBs, ECAs, and bilateral development institutions with a focus on institutions important for Turkey and Southeast Europe.  See references to coal public finance and subsidies in: Black Clouds Looming – How Turkey’s coal spree is threatening local economies on the Black Sea; and IFIs pull out of Turkish coal project – NGO pressure integral.
  • Greenpeace Mediterranean: After the SOMA coal mine accident, GP Turkey launched the ‘Plan B’ campaign against the dirty coal policies of the government. Their main target is the Ministry of Energy and are asking to shift the energy policies from coal to renewables, including elimination of coal subsidies. See GP Turkey’s SOMA Coal Mine Disaster Information Report; and the blog “What Caused the Turkey Coal Mine Disaster”.
  • Oil Change International: Our in-depth analysis of Turkey’s Coal Subsidies and Public Finance.

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Organizations Working Internationally on Coal Subsidies and Public Finance 

• Oil Change International: https://priceofoil.org/
• Global Subsidies Initiative: http://www.iisd.org/gsi/
• Pacific Environment: http://pacificenvironment.org/section.php?id=341
• ECA Watch:  http://www.eca-watch.org/
• CEE Bankwatch:  http://bankwatch.org/
• Natural Resources Defense Council: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jschmidt/way_too_much_public_funding_is.html
• End Coal: www.endcoal.org
• Bank Information Center: http://www.bicusa.org/resources/capacity-building-and-tools/
• Bretton Woods Project:  http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/

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