Doubling Back and Doubling Down: G20 scorecard on fossil fuel funding

This methodology note describes the framework used by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and its partners to track and score government support for fossil fuels across G20 countries between 2014 and 2020.

• The G20 scorecard tracks government support for fossil fuels across four primary stages of activity: coal exploration, production, processing, and transportation; oil and gas exploration, production, refining, and transportation; fossil fuel-based power; and fossil fuel use by industry, transport, households, and others.
• The report defines 'government support' broadly to include five distinct types of financial flows and policy measures: direct budget transfers and tax expenditures, consumer price support (induced transfers), public finance (such as loans and guarantees), state-owned enterprise (SOE) investment, and public money commitments made in response to the COVID-19 crisis up to August 12, 2020.
• The scoring system utilizes seven indicators: transparency (Indicator 1), pledges and commitments (Indicator 2), the scale of support for coal (Indicator 3), oil and gas (Indicator 4), fossil fuel-based power (Indicator 5), and end-use consumption (Indicator 6), and overall progress in ending support (Indicator 7).
• To ensure comparability between economies of different development levels, G20 countries are split into two separate scorecards: one for the 11 OECD member countries and another for the 8 non-OECD member countries.
• The final overall score is weighted heavily toward progress, with Indicator 7 (progress in ending support) accounting for 40% of the total score, while Indicators 1 through 6 each account for 10%.
• The methodology identifies significant data gaps that likely lead to an underestimation of total support, specifically regarding subnational-level data, the lack of transparency in Saudi Arabia's direct transfers and tax expenditures, and missing data for Turkey and the United Kingdom for 2018 and 2019.
• The report distinguishes between 'subsidies' as defined by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the broader 'government support' used in the scorecards; while direct transfers, tax expenditures, and price support fit the WTO definition, public finance and SOE investments contain both subsidy and non-subsidy components that are difficult to disentangle.
• For the analysis of fossil fuel-based power (Indicator 5) and end-use consumption (Indicator 6), the methodology selects the larger of two possible measures—either direct transfers and tax expenditures or price support—to ensure the most comprehensive estimate is used.

APA

Geddes, A., Gerasimchuk, I., Viswanathan, B., Picciariello, A., Tucker, B., Doukas, A., Corkal, V., Mostafa, M., Roth, J., Suharsono, A., & Gençsü, I. (2020). Doubling Back and Doubling Down: G20 scorecard on fossil fuel funding. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2020-11/g20-scorecard-methodology.pdf

Chicago

Geddes, Anna, Ivetta Gerasimchuk, Balasubramanian Viswanathan, Angela Picciariello, Bronwen Tucker, Alex Doukas, Vanessa Corkal, et al. Doubling Back and Doubling Down: G20 scorecard on fossil fuel funding. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2020. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2020-11/g20-scorecard-methodology.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{geddes2020doubling, author = {Geddes, Anna and Gerasimchuk, Ivetta and Viswanathan, Balasubramanian and Picciariello, Angela and Tucker, Bronwen and Doukas, Alex and Corkal, Vanessa and Mostafa, Mostafa and Roth, Joachim and Suharsono, Anissa and Gençsü, Ipek}, title = {{Doubling Back and Doubling Down: G20 scorecard on fossil fuel funding}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2020}, month = nov, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2020-11/g20-scorecard-methodology.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }