Making the EU a greener place by law

Four new laws, or EU directives, are aimed at making the EU the world's first low-carbon economy
Ian Traynor in Brussels
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday December 10 2008 16.44 GMT

Emissions trading scheme (ETS)
The cap and trade scheme limits industrial emissions and forces companies to pay to pollute by buying permits for each tonne of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The permits are to be traded in an auction system. The new law revises the ETS which has been operating in embryo since 2005. This scheme is supposed to supply around half the greenhouse gas cuts. The draft exempts some sectors from paying on competition grounds. But Germany wants to vastly expand the exemptions and Poland wants its power stations' permits for free.
Effort-sharing
This law covers the other half of pollution total from sources not subject to the ETS, such as emissions from farming, the building sector, and transport. While the ETS is to be run on a Europe-wide basis, the effort-sharing targets are prescribed nationally. There are already agreements on new car emissions and road fuel, cutting CO2 emissions from most new cars by 19% over a three-year period from 2012 and stipulating that 10% of transport fuel is non-fossil.
Renewables
Agreement reached on Tuesday that 20% of Europe's energy mix comes from renewable sources, such as windfarms and hydro-power, by 2020. Progressive national targets and quotas have been set, with Britain needing 15% from renewables by the deadline.
Carbon Capture and Storage
A new law envisages the establishment of 12 "demonstration" CCS projects to sequestrate and bury CO2 from power plants. Expensive and futuristic, the scheme is to be off the ground by 2015, but is the subject of dispute over which countries get the pilot projects and how they are funded.