The $7 Trillion Lie
How the IMF cooked the books to demonize fossil fuels and justify the biggest transfer of taxpayer money in history.
You’ve probably heard the claim by now... that fossil fuels receive a staggering $7 trillion per year in global subsidies. The number gets repeated endlessly by the IMF, the World Bank, climate NGOs, and politicians who seem to think fossil fuels are not just dirty, they’re also living on welfare.
It is one of the most effective talking points in the climate activist arsenal... and one of the most dishonest.
In this article, I will show you how the $7 trillion figure is not only wildly inflated... it is deliberately manipulated to mislead the public, obscure where your tax dollars are actually going, and justify the unchecked siphoning of wealth into the green industrial complex. This lie is not just academic. It is the foundation for the green energy slush funds, regulatory overreach, and carbon taxes now being pushed across the globe.
And yes, I’ve been following the money for a long time.
In Follow the Money, I exposed how unelected bureaucrats at the EPA funneled $20 billion into newly formed nonprofits, many with no infrastructure or scientific expertise, all under the banner of climate justice. These groups were little more than political pass-throughs... dressed up as climate saviors.
In Will Wind Energy Survive?, I broke down the financials behind the supposed "clean revolution" and showed how even with massive taxpayer subsidies, wind giants like Siemens and Vestas are bleeding billions. Their business models rely not on selling electricity, but on securing handouts.
And in Federal energy subsidies in the USA, I dug into real numbers from the Energy Information Administration. The findings? Solar received over 200 times more federal subsidies per unit of electricity than oil and gas. Let that sink in... the green energy transition is not about market efficiency... it is about market manipulation.
Now we come to the $7 trillion myth... a number so inflated it would make Enron blush.
Where Does This Number Come From?
In 2023, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a blog claiming that global fossil fuel subsidies reached an all-time high of $7 trillion. The media, as usual, took the headline and ran with it... no questions asked.
But the number is not what it seems.
Only a small fraction of that figure, less than one-fifth, is actual government spending. The rest? That’s where the con begins. It’s a clever sleight of hand... and in the subscriber section below, I’ll walk you through exactly how it works and why it’s designed to mislead you.
What Are the Real Numbers?
If you want reality... look to the IEA and EIA, not the IMF’s ideological spreadsheets.
The International Energy Agency reports that actual fossil fuel subsidies, the kind you can trace on a budget ledger, amount to roughly $500 to $700 billion per year. And most of that occurs in the developing world, where energy affordability is a matter of survival. These are countries like Venezuela, Iran, and Indonesia, where governments hold down domestic fuel prices to avoid unrest.
In the West — the U.S., Canada, and Europe — direct fossil fuel subsidies are small, targeted, and often phased out over time. In fact, most so-called subsidies in the U.S. are simply standard tax deductions applied to all industries, such as write-offs for equipment depreciation or manufacturing costs.
By contrast, the U.S. federal government has handed out over $70 billion in direct subsidies to renewables just through the Inflation Reduction Act. And when you compare subsidies per unit of electricity produced, solar received 205 times more than oil and gas between 2010 and 2019.
These numbers are not theoretical. They come from Congressional Budget Office audits, Energy Information Administration reports, and real-world government spending data.
The fossil fuel industry, despite powering over 80 percent of the global economy, receives less per unit of energy delivered than any other sector.
Why Inflate the Number?
Because the $7 trillion claim gives climate bureaucrats and green lobbyists the cover they need. If you can convince the public that fossil fuels are rigging the system with trillions in subsidies, then handing another $100 billion to solar farms that stop working at sundown feels like justice.
But in reality... it is green energy that has become dependent on subsidies. Not to compete, but to exist.
The moment the handouts stop, the industry collapses. Offshore wind contracts are being canceled up and down the Eastern Seaboard. Siemens is bleeding billions. Battery storage is floundering. Yet the checks keep flowing... because the lie keeps getting repeated.
Meanwhile, fossil fuels continue delivering reliable, scalable, affordable energy to billions... with none of the activist accounting.
What You’ll Learn as a Subscriber
If this is the kind of truth you wish more people were talking about... subscribe today.
In the full archive of over 350 articles, I break down:
The difference between implicit and explicit subsidies — and why it matters
The real cost of wind, solar, and EV infrastructure — not just to your wallet, but to grid reliability
How green energy billionaires are robbing taxpayers blind while claiming moral superiority
This week only, I’m offering a 7-day free trial so you can read this article in full, explore the archive, and decide for yourself whether one cup of coffee a month is worth real data... instead of manipulated fear.
👉 Start your free trial now at IrrationalFear.com
Because the only thing more dangerous than a bad idea... is when you’re forced to fund it.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Irrational Fear to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.