Environmentally Harmful Subsidies for Energy and Transport

The study of environmentally counterproductive subsidies (i.e., subsidies that potentially have a negative effect on the environment) in Austria focuses on direct subsidies and tax measures (i.e., indirect subsidies) in the areas of energy generation, energy use and transport at a federal level. It includes residential subsidies because of their interaction with energy use and transport. As an average of 2010-2013, environmentally counterproductive subsidies involved 3.8 to 4.7 billion € per year, half of which was spent on transport, more than a third on energy and just below 14 percent on residential subsidies. Nevertheless, such environmentally harmful subsidies as they were analysed for Austria cannot be (fully) eliminated at a national level, due in part to legal reasons (regulations at EU level, international agreements).