What is it about?
Fossil-fuel subsidies often benefit richer households more than poorer ones. Our study shows that redirecting this public spending through targeted social assistance can protect vulnerable families, reduce poverty, and preserve much of the emissions benefit from subsidy reform.
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Why is it important?
Our study is timely because governments are again using broad energy subsidies to shield households from price shocks. We show that who receives support matters as much as subsidy removal itself. Redirecting public funds through existing social assistance can protect vulnerable households, reduce poverty, and preserve emissions cuts—offering a practical path to make fossil-fuel subsidy reform fairer, more durable, and more politically feasible.
Perspectives
What drew me to this research is the gap between the long-term case for fossil-fuel subsidy reform and the short-term hardship it can create for vulnerable households. I wanted to understand whether governments could manage that transition more fairly using institutions they already have. For me, the most important lesson is that climate and social policy do not have to pull in opposite directions: well-designed social assistance can make reform both more equitable and more durable.
Laixiang SUN
University of Maryland at College Park
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Reallocating fossil subsidies via social assistance reduces poverty and preserves emissions cuts, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2606441123.
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