On September 30, 2008, City Solar Tour stopped in San Francisco, and Mayor Gavin Newsom used the opportunity to announce a program to subsidize conversion to solar power for commercial users in San Francisco.

Although commercial users throughout the City can apply, the City of San Francisco is reaching out to commercial users whose location makes solar power particularly financially viable. They used the sfsolarmap.org to identify 1600 companies in downtown San Francisco where it is sunny much of the year and sent letters letting them know about the availability of up to ten thousand dollars for solar subsidies and the availability of a free audit to evaluate the viability of solar power for their commercial building.

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But a new report from the UN Environment Program (UNEP) has turned that idea on its head, and for good measure. Because once you get right down to it, would you rather the government put their moneys in to helping out sustainable and renewable energies, or propping up the old ones?

Subsequently, the UNEP has recommended that fossil fuel subsidies should be scrapped, and that in doing so could not only decrease the amount of greenhouse gases, but also give a “not insignificant boost to the global economy.”

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