Climate Change Targets Estimated to Cost Euro 3 Per Week

The European Union’s new climate change targets would lower carbon emissions and create sweeping changes across a multitude of industries including paper, cement, manufacturing, and power generation.
The total cost could come to an extra euro 3 (US$4.35), and EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said it was a small price to pay to help slow down climate change.
The European Union plans to slash greenhouse gases by a fifth by 2020.  The plan calls for the imposition of euro 50 billion (US$72.47 billion) a year in costs on major polluters.  It would also quickly increase the amount of energy the EU draws from more expensive, alternative sources such as windmills, solar panels and energy crops.

But Barroso also nodded to industry leaders that extra costs would see them lose pace with other parts of the world, warning Europe would look at setting import allowances if trade partners don’t manage to strike a global pact to cut carbon emissions.

“If our expectations about an international agreement are not met, we will look at other options such as requiring importers to obtain allowances alongside European competitors, as long as such a system is compatible with WTO requirements,” he stated.

“The additional effort needed would be to less than 0.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2020. This amounts to about euro3 a week for everyone.”