WASHINGTON: Trillions of dollars which could be used to tackle climate change are being wasted on harmful and unnecessary subsidies, the World Bank said in a report on Thursday.

“People say that there isn’t money for climate but there is — it’s just in the wrong places,” World Bank Senior Managing Director Axel van Trotsenburg said in a statement.

“If we could repurpose the trillions of dollars being spent on wasteful subsidies and put these to better, greener uses, we could together address many of the planet’s most pressing challenges,” he added.

The World Bank report said $1.25 trillion in direct subsidies are currently given to the agricultural, fishing and fossil fuels sectors each year.

Fossil fuel subsidies alone make up around six times what countries pledged to mobilise annually under the Paris Agreement for renewable energies and low-carbon development, the bank said.

Another WB report also identified around $6tr in what it called “implicit subsidies” being wasted each year.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2023