EU agreement on emission controls

Today the 27-nation European Commission came up with a plan for emissions reductions. The plan has yet to go before the European Parliament for approval. It calls for a 20% cut in CO2 emissions by 2020.

The EU will begin selling carbon emission permits. To keep some member nations happy the EU will provide free permits to some industries until 2020. That includes cement,chemical and steel industries. Further, former communist nations like Poland and Hungary will get some of the carbon permit fees to help convert their industries to cleaner energy.