‘Impose fair tax on fossil energy’

Twenty climate scientists and economists from eight Dutch universities are calling on politicians to end tax benefits for large consumers of fossil fuels.

Fossil subsidies are the most extreme inconsistency in government policy ever, write leading economists and climate scientists in an opinion piece (in Dutch) in national newspaper Financieele Dagblad. “It is like turning on the air conditioning as well as the heating: you achieve nothing and have only high costs.”

The government in The Hague has so far continued to provide the tax benefits, arguing that abolishing them would mainly affect poor households. The government also argued that fossil companies and large consumers would move away to countries that still offer tax benefits. According to scientists, there is too little evidence for both of these effects.

The tax benefits for large fossil energy consumers turned out to be even larger than thought last week: up to 46.4 billion euros a year. More than the 35 billion euros allocated to the climate fund in the coming years.

^{A Scientist Rebellion member reading a report from the Intergournemental Panel on Climate Change next to the A12. (Photo: Extinction Rebellion)}

For more than 10 days, climate activists from Extinction Rebellion have been blocking the A12 motorway in The Hague in protest against the tax breaks and subsidies for large fossil energy consumers and fossil energy companies. Among them were scientists wearing togas or lab coats. (HOP, PvT)