We have witnessed the floods in Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, all across Europe. We have seen the wildfires in Greece, the devastation in Mayotte, Mallorca, Czechia and Corsica. We know more is coming.

But despite the acceleration of climate disasters in both strength and frequency, European governments still avoid tackling climate change at its very root: fossil fuels.

Instead, the EU even subsidizes fossil fuels.

Governments use our tax money, i.e. the wealth generated by our labor, to destroy our future. The most polluting sectors such as aviation, fishing and maritime transport, still benefit from massive fossil fuel tax breaks.

When we, citizens, fill up our car gas tanks, we pay taxes on fuel. But planes, fishing and shipping vessels don’t.

Tax exemptions to the aviation, maritime transport and fishing industries were introduced in the EU in the 1980s. They are now obsolete and form a central hurdle to the energy transition of EU economies.

In 2021, total fossil fuel subsidies amounted to 56 billion euros.

In 2023, they jumped to around 110 billion euros.

This public money should fund the energy transition, the protection of our environment, education or healthcare, but not the destruction of the climate.

The European Commission wants to reform the tax regime to ensure the EU meets its carbon neutrality goals. In the frame of the revision of the Energy Taxation Directive, the European Commission has proposed to finally tax the most polluting sectors of our economy. This was brave and necessary, but the Commission is facing fierce opposition from the aviation, fishing and transport sectors and certain Member States.

There is an international scientific consensus from climate IPCC experts on the urgent need to stop fossil fuel subsidies in order to avoid complete climate breakdown.

Let’s cut all incentives to burn fossil fuels.

We ask the European Union and national governments to:

STOP financing fossil fuels. 

STOP financing the most polluting sectors.

STOP financing industrial fishing.

Not with our money.

Not against our will.

This is about our future. We have a say.