18 May 2001: Nearly one-in-ten cars will run on environmentally friendly fuels within eight years, if a major new EU plan is accepted.
And there will be an EU-wide minimum level of tax on fuel to ensure that the price of petrol and diesel incorporate the 'external' costs of pollution. These costs would include the impacts of emissions on the environment.
Under the plan all subsidies to fossil fuel production would also be phased out by 2010.
The European Commission's strategy is designed to put environmental protection at the centre of all its policies and make the EU a world leader in sustainable economic development.
A central target is for the EU to set an example to the industrialised world by slashing greenhouse gases, limiting road transport and banning harmful chemicals.
The new wide ranging proposals were drafted under the direct guidance of Commission President Romano Prodi. He will submit his paper 'A Sustainable Europe for a Better World' to EU leaders at a summit in Gothenburg, Sweden, next month. US President George W Bush is due to attend.
The paper deepens the chasm between the EU and US over global warming - a central issue that has tarnished transatlantic relations since Bush pulled out of the 1997 Kyoto climate change deal in March.
The paper says the EU should not only comply with its Kyoto target and cut emissions by eight percent of 1990 levels by 2012, it should make a further one percent cut every year until 2020.
Prodi hopes the 16-page paper will be the cornerstone of the bloc's position at a global environment congress in Johannesburg next summer to mark the tenth anniversary of the Rio Earth Summits.
At Rio, world leaders, including George Bush snr, signed up to the long-term aim of achieving 'sustainable development' - in other words finding ways of continuing economic growth without destroying the environment's natural resources.
Prodi suggests tough policies aimed particularly at the energy, farm and transport sectors.
Under his plan all subsidies to fossil fuel production should be phased out by 2010; seven percent of cars and trucks should run on environmentally-friendly fuels; and by 2020 no chemicals should be produced or used in a way that could harm people or the environment.
An EU-wide minimum level of tax on fuel should ensure that fuel prices incorporate the 'external' costs of pollution.
It also want the EU to appoint a panel of around 10 independent experts to make sure the bloc's pro-environment policies are making progress.
Prodi says it was possible to convert the EU economy into one that did no long-term harm to the environment, but still provided high standards of living.
