Founded in 1999 by Doug Koplow, Earth Track works to make government subsidies that harm the environment easier to see, value, and eliminate. There are thousands of environmentally-harmful subsidies throughout the world, contributing to global challenges such as overfishing, excessive clearing of forests, water depletion, and climate change. The subsidies alter market prices and investment incentives, distorting wide ranging market decisions on what to buy, what to build, and when and where to do it.
Most subsidies rely on complex and arcane regulatory, tax, insurance, or credit policies. Often, the cost of the programs both fiscally and environmentally remain invisible and the policies unchallenged. Earth Track hopes to change this by improving both the understanding and the ability to value the common subsidy mechanisms..
Our objective is to:
- Consolidate and standardize subsidy data in an unbiased way in partnership with like-minded organizations;
- Present a holistic picture of the impact of these government policies on resource use and investment decisions;
- Provide educational materials that help non-technical audiences better understand complicated subsidy transfer mechanisms;
- Improve subsidy valuation tools and quantify the value of existing subsidies so they can be integrated into policy decisions in real time.