Falling oil prices and sustainable energy transition: Towards a multilateral agreement on fossil-fuel subsidies

Fossil-fuel subsidies are economically inefficient and harmful for the environment yet efforts to phase them out at the national and international levels have not been effective. The existing international legal framework is too weak and fragmented to support this process and an international agreement is essential. This paper explores the challenges and prospects of, and avenues for negotiating a binding multilateral agreement on phasing out fossil-fuel subsidies. The paper posits that the Friends of Fossil-Fuel Subsidy Reform are in a position to take the lead and that the ball is in the court of the World Trade Organization.