EU aims to "give humanity a fighting chance" with catch-all climate plan

European Union policymakers on Wednesday unveiled their most ambitiousplanyet to tackleclimatechange, aiming to turn green goals into concrete action this decade, and in doing so lead the way for the world's other big economies.

TheEuropean Commission, theEUexecutive body, set out in painstaking detail how the bloc's 27 countries can meet their collective goal to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 55% from 1990 levels by 2030 - a step towards "net-zero" emissions by 2050.

This will mean raising the cost of emitting carbon for heating, transport and manufacturing, taxing high-carbon aviation fuel and shipping fuel that has not been taxed before, and charging importers at the border for the carbon emitted in making products such as cement, steel and aluminium abroad. It will consign the internal combustion engine to history.

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"We're going to ask a lot of our citizens. We're also going to ask a lot of our industries, but we do it for good cause,"EUclimatepolicy chief Frans Timmermans said.

"We do it togive humanity a fighting chance."

The "Fit for 55" measures will require approval by member states and theEuropean parliament, a process that could take two years.

They are also likely to face intense lobbying from some industrial sectors, from poorerEuropean member states that want to protect their citizens from price rises, and from more polluting countries facing a costly transition.

A diplomat from oneEUcountry said the success of the package would rest on its ability to be realistic and socially fair, while not destabilising the economy.

"The aim is to put the economy on a new level, not to stop it," the diplomat said.

EYES ON GLASGOW

TheEUproduces only 8% of global emissions but hopes its example will elicit ambitious action from the world's other major economies when they meet in November in Glasgow for the next milestone U.N.climateconference.

"Europe was the first continent to declare to beclimateneutral in 2050, and now we are the very first ones to put a concrete roadmap on the table,"European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

The package arrives days after California suffered one of the highest temperatures recorded on earth, the latest of a series of brutal heatwaves that have hit Russia, NorthernEurope and Canada.

Asclimatechange makes itself felt from the typhoon-swept tropics to the blowtorched bushlands of Australia, Brussels proposed a dozen policies to target most big sources of the fossil fuel emissions that trigger it, including powerplants, factories, cars,planes and heating systems in buildings.

TheEUhas so far cut emissions by 24 per cent from 1990 levels, but many of the most obvious steps, such as reducing reliance on coal to generate power, have been taken already.

The next decade will require bigger adjustments, with a long-term eye on 2050, by which date scientists say the world must have reached net-zero carbon emissions to preventclimatechange from becoming catastrophic.

The measures follow a core principle: to make polluting more expensive and green options more attractive to theEU's 25 million businesses and nearly half a billion people.

PLANES, SHIPS AND AUTOMOBILES

Tighter emission limits for cars will in effect end new petrol and diesel car sales in theEUby 2035 - the earliest of the possible dates that had been touted.

An overhaul of theEUEmissions Trading System, the biggest carbon market in the world, will force factories, powerplants and airlines to pay more when they emit CO2. Ships will also be added to the ETS, requiring shipowners to pay for their pollution for the first time.

A newEUcarbon market will impose CO2 costs on the transport and construction sectors - with some of the revenues put in a fund to curb low-income households' fuel bills.

The commission also unveiled itsplanfor the world's first carbon border tariff, requiring manufacturers abroad to pay for the CO2 they have produced when they sell goods such as steel and cement into theEU.

Meanwhile, a tax overhaul will impose anEU-wide tax on polluting aviation fuels, which currently dodge such levies.

EUmember states will also be required to build up forests and grasslands - the carbon sinks that keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

For someEUcountries, the package is a chance to cement theEU's global leadership in fightingclimatechange, and to be at the forefront of those developing the technologies needed.

Danishclimateand energy minister Dan Jorgensen said it would signal to the rest of the world that "it is possible to both set ambitious goals and introduce the concrete necessary measures to reach them".

But theplans have exposed familiar rifts. Poorer member states are wary of policies that will raise costs for the consumer, while regions that depend on coal-fired powerplants and mines want guarantees of more support for a transformation that will cause dislocation and require mass retraining.