The European Union presented a plan for radical environmental transformation Green Deal

The EU leadership today unveiled the EU Green Deal (formerly Fit for 55), a comprehensive environmental plan that aims to reduce emissions by 55% from 1990 levels by 2030. The plan will be discussed and changed, but there is no doubt that it will fundamentally change all areas of the economy from air travel to construction, writes Bloomberg.

The EU Green Deal is a critical step towards achieving EU net neutrality in terms of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The plan includes:

• Border carbon tax on EU imports, initially affecting steel, cement, aluminium, fertilizers and electricity. Here, our colleagues from Econs.Online analyzed in detail how it threatens Russian manufacturers.

• The transition from 2035 to the production of only cars with zero emissions, that is, a de facto ban on new cars with internal combustion engines running on gasoline and diesel fuel (but not on hydrogen).

• Create one million electric vehicle charging stations by 2025, three million by 2030.

• Full offsetting of the carbon footprint by airlines, as well as the obligation to use a minimum proportion of "low-carbon" synthetic fuels on flights departing from EU airports.

• The complete abolition of tax subsidies for fuels from fossil sources (now it is jet fuel that is mainly subsidized in the EU).

• Offsetting the carbon footprint of maritime and road transport, as well as public heating, within a specific segment of the carbon market. You can read about how the global and European carbon market works in general here .

What's next

The official presentation of the plan means nothing more than launching the approval process in 27 EU countries. It certainly will not be easy, and bargaining in the union may well drag on for years. Individual points of the plan are criticized from different directions, but European officials are sure that in general there is no alternative to it.

The Greens point to numerous loopholes and the potential to mask high-carbon practices - "greenwashing" . For example, they are not satisfied that woody biomass is on the list of renewable energy sources - this is the fruit of the efforts of Sweden and Finland, and it will be difficult to convince them to abandon it. Greenpeace has stated bluntly that the announced measures are not enough: "Cheering for them is like giving a medal to a high jumper who has run under the bar."

A significant threat is carbon leakage, that is, the threat of taking “dirty” production out of the EU and importing “clean” finished products. EU officials who spoke at the presentation said that a detailed frontier carbon tax, which will come into force as early as 2023, is already solving this problem.

Socialists do not like the fact that residents and users will increasingly pay for the carbon footprint of heating houses and private cars, while about 34 million Europeans already do not have this opportunity. Here it is supposed to use the mechanism of the Social Climate Fund, which is supposed to be filled, among other things, from carbon tax fees. The fund's funds will be used to bring housing to new energy standards, and subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles for the poor.

The biggest resistance is expected from airlines and the transport industry. In 2020, out of 216 industry associations, only 36% supported a 55% reduction in emissions by 2030.

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The program to combat climate change, presented today by the European Commission, will affect the supply of steel, aluminum, pipes, electricity, cement and fertilizers from Russia in the amount of $ 7.6 billion a year, the Ministry of Economic Development calculated, outraged that EU plans violate "letter and spirit" WTO agreements.