Webinars

How can social protection make green tax reforms, environmental taxes, and energy subsidy reform sustainable

Day: Wednesday, September 5th, 2018.

Time: 09:00 – 10:30 am (time in Costa Rica)

Check the time according to your location: http://bit.ly/2PM9MVp

Agenda 

Introduction. Ana María Majano. Coordinator of the Secretariat, LEDS LAC Platform.

International experience in subsidy reforms: some lessons learned. Lourdes Sánchez. Public Policy Advisor, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) / Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI). | Download presentation

How much can social protection compensate poor and middle-class households for an increase in energy prices. Adrien Vogt-Schilb. Economist, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) – Climate Change Division. | Download presentation

About the webinar

Energy subsidies have been criticized because of their economic inefficiency and because they encourage energy wastage and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. On the contrary, environmental taxes are advocated as efficient policy instruments. However, eliminating subsidies and raising the price of energy can be politically difficult because vulnerable households depend on low energy prices.

This webinar will present the lessons learned internationally by the Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI, for its acronym in English) GSI and the results of quantitative analysis of the IDB, seeking to answer the question: How can governments eliminate subsidies to the energy in a socially acceptable way?

Among the lessons learned gathered by the GSI, there are five good practices to reform energy prices: reflect the correct price, analyze the impacts of the price increase, manage these impacts by implementing mitigation and compensation measures, create support for the reform of through appropriate communication and monitoring campaigns, and adjust the measures based on the results.

How affordable would it be to compensate poor and vulnerable households for an increase in the price of energy? The IDB study shows that every $1 transferred to households in the poorest quintile using energy subsidies costs Latin American and Caribbean governments $12. Extending the cash transfers that exist in the countries could be up to six times cheaper.

The webinar will be held in Spanish. If you have any questions about this event, please contact the LEDS LAC Platform Secretariat: info@ledslac.org.

About the panelists

Lourdes works at GSI in Geneva, where she researches the analysis of energy subsidies and the evaluation and design of policies to support renewable energy. She has worked on projects in Indonesia, China and India. Before arriving at the GSI, Lourdes worked in a public electricity company developing measures to support renewable energy and energy efficiency through prices and incentives. She also has experience in international consulting, working for the definition of support mechanisms for renewable energy.Adrien works at the IDB in Washington, where he researches the design of effective and politically acceptable emission reduction policies: how to align the implementation of NDC with local development objectives and the imperative of long-term decarbonization while navigating the economy politics. Adrien is an engineer, has a PhD in climate economics and is the author of 3 books and more than 12 academic articles.

Additional Material

This webinar is co-organized with:

Index