As energy prices spike, governments reach for the dirtiest tool in the box

“THIS REFORM will increase our energy security...and it will help us combat the threat posed by climate change.” Those hopeful words were uttered by Barack Obama, then America’s president, at the end of a meeting of the G20 group of countries in Pittsburgh in 2009. The gathered leaders had agreed to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels, which, by encouraging the use of polluting fuels, tilt the playing field against cleaner alternatives. Twelve years later, however, fossil-fuel subsidies are still hanging on. And as a severe energy-supply crunch leads to soaring prices around the world, they are making something of a comeback.