(LifeSiteNews) — Lawmakers in the European Union (EU) are plotting to implement an extra “carbon price” on fossil fuels, including those used for personal vehicles and heaters, according to a Sunday report by EU policy news site Euractiv.
According to the report, lawmakers reached an agreement early Sunday to approve the carbon tax, combined with a fund to help Europeans switch to alternative energy sources. The decision will increase costs for gasoline and diesel at the pump, as well as gas and coal to heat homes, offices, and other spaces.
The added cost is slated to take effect in 2027, though the European Parliament said they may delay it to 2028.
EU agrees CO2 tax on heating and transport fuels, softened by new social climate fund https://t.co/XOtFg4gN8s
— EURACTIV (@EURACTIV) December 18, 2022
Euronews suggested that individual households will be required to foot the bill for their use of traditional fuel sources thanks to the legislation, reporting that “[t]he agreement also aims to make households pay for emissions linked to fuel and gas heating from 2027, but the price is expected [to] be capped until 2030.”
Last year, the chairman of the European Parliament warned lawmakers the tax could trigger political protests, Euractiv reported, noting that lawmakers have since advanced an €87 billion “Social Climate Fund” in a bid to help Europeans finance their personal shift away from fossil fuels.
Green MEP Michael Bloss expressed skepticism about the fund, however, arguing it’s “not sufficient to compensate for” the “burden” placed on consumers, according to Euractiv. Bloss added that the climate agenda “has an anti-social slant.”
The “Social Climate Fund” is an element of the 27-country bloc’s so-called “Fit for 55” legislative package aimed at combating carbon emissions to curb “climate change.”
Fit for 55, also known as the “European Green Deal,” will drastically reduce and then effectively ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by aiming to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 and 100% by 2035, Euronews reported in late October.
The news comes as Europe has committed to a large-scale movement away from traditional energy sources in a bid to stave off the much-projected “climate crisis” thought by some to be caused by human activity.
That shift toward so-called “clean energy” received an added boost this year after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, triggering a lengthy conflict that has had an outsized impact on Europe’s energy supply.
RELATED: Tensions over European energy crisis rise as Russia retaliates for EU sanctions
While the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has inspired some of the accelerated changes, shaking off reliance on traditional fuel sources is also a major component of the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s “Great Reset,” which “seeks to ‘push the reset button’ on the global economy” and “reimagine capitalism.”
The WEF has also endorsed the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which call for the global implementation of a spate of leftist agenda items ranging from “universal access” to “sexual and reproductive health,” to “international cooperation aimed at accelerating the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions” by the year 2030.
And Europe isn’t alone in turning left-wing climate ideology into public policy.
This year alone, left-leaning states in the U.S. preempted some of Europe’s green energy maneuvers by opting to phase out combustion engine vehicles by 2035.
READ: EU follows California and New York with plan to ban sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035
In addition to instituting a plan to phase out traditional cars and trucks, California even moved to outlaw sales of personal gas-powered heaters, despite the state’s struggles to keep its electric grid functioning thanks to outdated infrastructure inefficiently offset by less reliable “clean energy” sources like wind and solar.
Many conservatives have long pushed back against the radical climate agenda as promoted by the WEF and the UN. In 2013, the Heritage Foundation argued that intrusive environmental policies then underway in the U.S., including “the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act,” actually “empower and enlarge ineffective bureaucracies, infringe on private property rights, and confound the dynamics of a free market.”
In a current example of the real-world impact of radical climate policies, the Dutch government is reportedly planning to buy out and close over 3,000 farms in an effort to stop “pollution.”
Critics worry the move could exacerbate food shortages amid the ongoing global hunger crisis, The Defender reported.