Should it be ‘solar leading energy subsidy growth’.
China only ended solar panel export subsidy this month.
Oil is directly subsidized in most oil producing countries. Go look at what fuel costs in Saudi Arabia or Nigeria, vs what they could sell it for on international markets. That's a subsidy.
Jet fuel is universally exempt from tax. Try finding any other energy source that is.
Yes some places choose to lower fuel taxes. But that's not really a subsidy is it.
(And tbf nor is my mentioned Chinese solar panel export subsidy as it was actually a GST/VAT rebate).
But in many cases there is an alternative to air travel, at least for short distances. I don't really understand why railways (at least in the UK) such ridiculously expensive. Return flights from London to Edinburgh start at £30, train tickets between the same cities start at £100. A return ticket from a station in 50 miles from London is more than £65 (peak times).
There isn't an alternative for water, electricity and food. Easy to find places where the former two are taxed, the latter is taxed effectively everywhere.
> Synfuel still has pollution problem and represents like 0.1% of total jet fuel used.
is a fairly lightweight critique of a product development path scarcely five years in:
Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is an alternative fuel made from non-petroleum feedstocks that reduces air pollution from air transportation. SAF can be blended at different levels with limits between 10% and 50%, depending on the feedstock and how the fuel is produced. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), over 360,000 commercial flights have used SAF at 46 different airports largely concentrated in the United States and Europe.
Worldwide, aviation accounts for 2% of all carbon dioxide (CO2) and 12% of all CO2 from transportation. ICAO's Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) caps net CO2 from aviation at 2020 levels through 2035. The international aviation industry sets goals for SAF usage globally. SAF presents the best near-term opportunity to meet these goals.
The Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge, announced in 2021, brings together multiple federal agencies for the purpose of expanding domestic consumption to 3 billion gallons in 2030 and 35 billion gallons in 2050 while achieving at least a 50% reduction in lifecycle emissions.
So, have some patience and remember the goal here is to reduce the use of fossil fuel as much as possible .. if Synfuel evolves into something that reduces fossil fuel usage by 50% in the aviation sector, that's a win on the path to ideally eventual elimination altogether.
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2021/09/23/Sti...
So $400b. Still a lot.
But I really should locate a more recent version of this report...
https://www.imf.org/en/publications/wp/issues/2025/12/20/und...
In 2024 they found $725bn in explicit subsides, plus $6.7tn in implicit subsidies.
Plus, add the entire defense budget of US + western countries, which only exists to protect oil interests.