Politics
Addicted to Cheap Fuel, Emerging Markets Face a Climate Dilemma
From Brazil to India, fuel subsidies are deepening dependence on dirty energy
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Rising oil prices are testing the developing world’s resolve to quit fossil fuels.
The president of Brazil has fired the chief of the country’s largest oil producer -- inadvertently sending its currency, bonds and stocks plunging -- in a bid to keep diesel prices from spiking. Nigeria’s dependence on low-cost gasoline threatens to scupper a year-long effort to phase out fuel subsidies. Peru and Mexico are reversing fossil fuel taxes as oil prices rise and families struggle to make ends meet, and India is under pressure to do so.