Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 7 March 2025 to Question 34130 on Fossil Fuels, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the World Trade Organisation definition of fossil fuel subsidies; and if she will make it her policy to use this definition.

The UK follows the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) definition of a fossil fuel subsidy. The IEA defines a fossil fuel subsidy as government action that lowers the effective cost for fossil fuels paid by consumers to below world market prices.

There are other internationally used definitions for fossil fuel subsidies, including the World Trade Organization definition, which include measures that do not reduce consumer prices below world market levels. However, such definitions classify measures as support without reference to the purpose for which they were first put in place or their economic or environmental effects.