Energy Crisis Puts World’s Most Ambitious Climate Plan to Test

The record spike in energy prices could hardly have come at a worse time for Europe’s ambitious new climate plan, with politicians just beginning to talk about how they’re going to implement the world’s most sweeping emissions-cutting strategy.

The energy crisis is threatening double-digit increases in consumer electricity bills months before the winter freeze and it’s also squeezing industrial giants. As European governments scrambled to blunt the impact on consumers -- Greece promised subsidies on power bills, for example --- threats of blackouts in the U.K. this past week were a vivid reminder of the fragility of energy supplies.

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