To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps he is taking to ensure that global fossil fuel subsidies are reduced as part of a post-2012 agreement at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change conference of parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen in December 2009. (265219)

We recognise that fossil fuel subsidies form a barrier to the development, deployment and diffusion of low carbon technologies.

Each country will have different strategies for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. Where countries have absolute emissions reduction targets, it is clear that the removal of subsidies is one way in which they could meet such targets.

For developing countries that do not have absolute emissions reduction targets, the EU has proposed that “low carbon development strategies” be prepared, to enable these countries to take action to reduce their emissions. Efforts to remove subsidies could be part of these plans, and support could be provided by the international community to enable this to occur.