Politicians around the world have signed up to achieving carbon net zero by 2050, putting environmental taxes and subsidies at the heart of energy policy. This has created a complex and costly merry-go-round in which even fossil fuels end up being subsidised, a chaotic system that is wide open to regulatory capture - and to an ideologically motivated agenda. Authors Philip Booth and Carlo Stagnaro argue for a rational 'polluter pays' system of taxing energy sources, which would stimulate greater levels of carbon reduction - at a much lower economic cost.