European Union leaders have announced plans to slash greenhouse gas emissions and switch to renewable fuels [more | more2]. In doing so they have thrown down the gauntlet to the world — particularly the United States, China and India — challenging the world to follow its lead in fighting climate change. Largely resulting from the leadership of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the EU package set targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming by 20%, developing renewable energy sources to meet a fifth of energy use, boosting energy efficiency and using biofuels to fuel 10 percent of its cars and trucks. The last point is the most problematic as it does not appear that steps were taken to avoid deforestation palm oil biofuels originating in Southeast Asia; nonetheless, this can be rectified as it becomes clear that not all biofuels are environmentally beneficial. More importantly, European leadership committed their nations to a firm target of reducing EU greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and offered to go to 30 percent if major nations such as the United States, Russia, China and India follow suit. What sets these announcements apart from other previously are their magnitude — this is on track to begin reaching emissions reductions levels of 80% by 2050 necessary to keep global heating under the dangerous range — and the important fact that they are binding. The down side is Europe accounts for only about 13% of global emissions. It is hoped this will break the logjam and nudge other big-polluters to commit to mandatory greenhouse gas emission cuts.