According to a study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conducted in 170 countries, direct public subsidies to fossil fuels reached a record level of $1.3 trillion in 2022, compared to just $500 billion in 2020. energy prices caused by the war in Ukraine, governments have tried to protect the purchasing power of their population by introducing price shields.
These have enabled consumers to benefit from prices for petrol, fuel oil, gas and even electricity that are significantly lower than their price set by the market. State financial aid for households represented 97% of subsidies, those intended for fossil fuel producers 3%. In detail, according to the calculations of IMF economists, they were devoted up to 48% to natural gas, 26% to oil, 25% to electricity and 1% to coal.
Direct fossil fuel subsidies accounted for 1.3% of global GDP in 2022, compared to 0.6% in 2020. Geographically, the East Asia and Pacific region hosted 38%, the Middle East and North Africa 26%, Europe 16%, while Africa and North America were each below 3%.
