Subsidies have always been part of the policy toolbox that governments use to achieve a variety of policy goals. Over the last decades, they have been particularly pervasive in the energy, agriculture and fisheries sectors. The way in which these subsidies are allocated plays a major role in shaping global production and trade patterns, income distribution and the use of natural resources. This information note focuses on three sectors of particular relevance from a sustainable development perspective, namely agriculture, fisheries and energy. It reviews the scale and composition of subsidies provided in these sectors, their relative impact, and the current state of policy reforms. It supports the notion that a rules-based multilateral approach may be the first best option to leverage reform of a global scale and impact, whilst offsetting the prisoner’s dilemma stalemate that otherwise would result from uncoordinated undertaking of reforms by national governments in a globalised economy.