The world’s nations annually contribute over $1 trillion to subsidies for agriculture, energy, water and transport. This is 12 times the amount needed to bring official development assistance up to the 0.7 per cent target set in 1966; it is 15 times the amount that was estimated to be necessary if the Millennium Development Goals were to be fully implemented; and it is even 8 times the massive amount that the architects of the Earth Summit calculated would be needed to implement the ambitious Agenda 21. Subsidies to irrigation, for example, lead to massive wastage of scarce water resources; subsidies to coal production and consumption invalidate efforts to move towards cleaner energy; subsidies to fishing fleets lead to the devastation of fish stocks; and subsidies to transport fuel lead to wasteful use of energy in transport.