The European Union and China announced sweeping plans to limit greenhouse-gas emissions that will increase costs for industry and consumers but drew criticism from environmentalists as not going far enough to slow climate change.
The moves, while both long discussed and still months or years from full implementation, show a new urgency to regulate emissions in two of the world’s biggest economies. They come as the Biden administration promises its own bold initiatives but faces big obstacles in Congress.
Beijing and Brussels are also acting months ahead of the world’s next climate-change conference, scheduled for November in Glasgow, Scotland, where the world’s biggest powers hope to hammer out new initiatives to limit emissions.
The EU on Wednesday proposed a broad economic overhaul that would sharply cut the bloc’s reliance on fossil fuels and place first-of-its kind levies on imports from high-emitting countries.
The package of legislation, drafted by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, ranks among the most ambitious plans yet by a major economic power to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases, such as methane, that scientists say are causing the earth to warm. It calls for a massive shift by companies and households to cleaner technologies like wind turbines, solar power and electric vehicles—including a requirement for the share of renewable sources in Europe’s energy mix to rise to 40% in 2030, from 20% currently. It strives to limit pollution across the European economy, including electricity generation, automobiles, housing, shipping and agriculture.