http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/19/fossil-fuel-subsidies-carbon-target?CMP=twt_gu
According to IEA research, 37 governments spent $409bn on artificially lowering the price of fossil fuels in 2010. Critics say the subsidies significantly boost oil and gas consumption and disadvantage renewable energy technologies, which received only $66bn of subsidies in the same year.
Most developed countries have already phased out policies that directly subsidise fossil fuel consumption. But recent analysis by the OECD suggests that these nations continue to prop up the oil, gas and coal industries in less obvious ways, such as providing tax breaks or favourable access to land and infrastructure.
These indirect mechanisms are worth an estimated $45–75bn. Coal, the most polluting of the three main fossil fuels, currently receives 39% of this support – mostly as a result of governments in Europe, and to a lesser extent Australia, Canada, Korea and the US, trying to ensure that changes to their coal-mining industries happen gradually rather than overnight.