Addicted to cheap fuel, emerging markets face a climate dilemma

Around the world, countries spend a staggering $300 billion a year to keep a lid on fossil-fuel prices, stave off civil unrest and prop up their economies

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.

Around the world, countries spend a staggering $300 billion a year to keep