Brussels Edition: Breaking Down the Green Agenda

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

It’s being touted as one of the most ambitious plans to green the economy globally, and this week we will find out exactly how the EU intends to become carbon neutral by the middle of the decade. The bloc will mark the start of the swansong for fossil fuels with a bid to lower emissions by 55% from their 1990 levels by 2030. One key aim is to phase out the combustion engine by requiring emissions from new cars and vans to fall by 65% from 2030 and drop to zero by 2035, according to a draft EU document. More broadly, expect a raft of proposed legislation, including an expansion of the EU’s carbon market, rules to force airlines to cut pollution as well as proposals to slap an emissions levy on key construction imports from outside the bloc. Lobbies and NGOs will waste no time in parsing the fine print to see what the true cost will be and whether it really does live up to all the hype. We walk you through the main action points below.