Exclusive | China, US set to release review of each other’s fossil fuel subsidies in historic move at G20 summit

The cross-checking system between world’s two worst carbon polluters will be the first time Beijing has allowed another nation to review its domestic energy subsidies

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A worker pushes a cart at a coal mine owned by in Pinglu, Shanxi province. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:30am, 31 Aug 2016Updated: 11:35am, 6 Jul 2017

China and the United States – the world’s two largest economies and worst carbon polluters – are expected to make public a cross-checking of each other’s fossil fuel subsidies at the G20 summit in Hangzhou this weekend, people familiar with the matter say.

It will be the first time that China has allowed a foreign country to review its domestic energy subsidies. The arrangement is also the first among G20 powers.

While the real impact may be small, it signifies that China will, on a limited basis, allow the US to influence its domestic energy subsidies, in a major gesture to the US and the world that China is taking climate change seriously.

A mentality of looking after one’s own concerns while hoping for the best has often hindered real progress on climate change measures.

The peer-review mechanism between Beijing and Washington, the first under the framework of the Group of 20 major economies, can help translate political will into a deliverable plan to gradually phase out fossil fuel subsidies, six years after leaders of the group agreed to do so, experts said.