Green Growth Is Nowhere, Thanks to Subsidized Energy

Consuming unlimited volumes of oil derivatives and gas for heating and not converting it to value added products means wasting national resources and imposing a heavy burden on future generations, a lecturer at Sharif University of Technology said.
“Substituting oil and gas with clean energy and using green power should be a priority to, among other things, get rid of the costly, wasteful and unsustainable energy subsidies,” ILNA quoted Hashem Oraee as saying. 
Iran is the only country in the world where 20% of the annual GDP ($100 billion) is spent on energy consumption subsidies, Oraee recalled, and added that the world's total direct energy subsidies – including for fossil fuels –are estimated at $400 billion.

Oraee noted that supplying low efficiency power plants (20%) natural gas as feedstock is a clear indication that energy is neither valued nor conserved (in Iran).
“Gas should be converted to added-value goods in the key petrochemical sector instead of being wasted in Rey, Besat and Tarasht Power Plants that should have been decommissioned 20 years ago,” the teacher who also is head of the Renewable Energy Union said.