Here's some for you.
"Most energy subsidies arise from the failure to adequately charge for the cost of domestic environmental damage—only about one-quarter of the total is from climate change"
"These findings must be viewed with caution. Most important, there are many uncertainties and controversies involved in measuring environmental damages in different countries—our estimates are based on plausible—but debatable—assumptions"
".. there is an implicit assumption that supply prices do not adjust in response to demand changes. Linkages with the broader fiscal and macroeconomic system are also ignored."
"Broader externalities associated with the use of road fuels in vehicles, such as traffic congestion and accidents (most important) and road damage (less important). "
How would that differ if cars were electric??
"For coal, there is substantial potential to reduce air pollution emission rates through greater deployment of filtering technologies in the smokestack".
That's a surprise, advocating "clean coal"??
"For electricity, subsidies are assumed to be a constant share of GDP up to 2014 from whenever the most recent estimates are available. The reason we do not apply the previously described methodology is because it does not appear to produce reliable estimates for some countries during this time period".
So, pass-through estimates were used for petroleum, coal & natural gas but not electricity as that methodology doesn't supply numbers that fit the theory??
Finally,
"Some of the estimation methodologies and assumptions underlying the above results may be subject to large uncertainties and controversies. This includes estimates of the pass-through of international price changes to domestic prices; price elasticities; transportation and distribution margins; and global warming, air pollution, and other vehicle externalities. "
The answer - raise Taxes!!
"energy taxes remain the most effective and practical tool until such other instruments become widely available and implemented. "
Settled science? Not yet. I await the companion paper reviewing subsidies paid for renewable energy.
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2015/wp15105.pdf
(Economics -> consider say 27 variables, assume 25 are constant, graph the other 2, extrapolate...…??)
