How your company can help eliminate harmful subsidies

This story is about corporate and government policy on environmental subsidies, not home energy upgrades. More than 130 businesses, including Danone, H&M Group, Unilever and Rabobank, recently asked governments to reform subsidies and tax breaks that make environmentally damaging practices cheaper than sustainable ones. Governments worldwide spend an estimated $2.6 trillion a year on subsidies that can have unintended environmental costs, such as agricultural supports that encourage intensive farming at the expense of soil and water.

The piece ties into a global agreement from 2022, in which governments committed to eliminating or reforming these harmful subsidies by 2025 as part of a broader plan to halt nature loss by 2030. With a UN biodiversity conference opening October 19, the article outlines ways companies can work with governments on this effort, including mapping how subsidies affect their supply chains, proposing better-designed incentives, and engaging directly with finance and agriculture ministries rather than only environmental agencies.

None of this involves home energy programs, rebates, or equipment like heat pumps or weatherization (sealing and insulating a home to cut energy waste). It concerns how businesses and policymakers might rework large-scale subsidy systems tied to agriculture, trade, and industry. There is no new rebate, deadline, or program here that would affect a homeowner's own energy upgrade plans or costs.