Climate change isn't just an environmental issue; it is also an economic issue that makes us all poorer.

The subsidisation of fossil fuels distorts the energy market and slows down the rollout of cleaner, renewable energy. In effect, governments are subsidising climate change, leading to higher temperatures, rising sea levels, and the death of millions of people due to air pollution.

Fossil fuels are subsidized by $11 million a minute

Instead of subsidising fossil fuels, these funds could be spent on improving health services, improving education or just going back into your pocket.

Analysis by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows that governments subsidised fossil fuels by $5.9 trillion in 2020, this equivalent to 6.8% of global GDP. Furthermore, the IMF analysis shows that fossil fuel subsidies are expected to rise to 7.4% of GDP by 2025.

8.7 million people a year die as a consequence of air pollution due to the burning of fossil fuels

Research has shown that 8.7 million people die prematurely due to air pollution from burning fossil fuels.

These are preventable deaths; the technology and know-how exist today to eliminate the use of fossil fuels. Project Drawdown provides an excellent template for how we could stop using fossil fuels.

Taxpayers will have to pay for the future damage the burning of fossil fuels does to the environment.

This year's ten most expensive weather disasters caused more than $170bn in damage and $20bn more than 2020.

The increasing costs of natural disasters reflected the effects of climate change. The ten disasters in question also killed at least 1,075 people and displaced 1.3 million.

Subsidies of fossil fuels distort the energy market.

The subsidies that fossil fuels receive are slowing down the development of cleaner alternatives, distorting the market. Without government subsidies, demand for fossil fuels would decrease, forcing prices to lower so that only a few producers would be viable. All the subsidies of fossil fuels are delaying the inevitable shift to renewables.

Fossil fuels should be taxed to pay for their pollution. 

As well as the financial subsidies that fossil fuel producers receive, they also don't have to pay for the costs of their pollution. Neither the health cost care costs of the people they are harming nor the damage of the increasing costs of natural disasters and sea level rises. To make the energy market a level playing field, governments should eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels and charge a levy on them to pay for the environment and social damage they create.