As the U.S. dawdles on climate change amid a lame duck Congress/President and financial wreckage, Europe is pushing ahead. This week, the European Parliament approved a package of climate-saving goodies aimed at meeting the EU's goals of reducing CO2 20%, increasing energy efficiency by 20%, and achieving a 20% renewables energy mix.

The deal addresses critical nuts and bolts issues like cap and trade, auto emissions, and carbon sequestration and makes an effort to cover as many emissions as possible.

Europe's current cap and trade system, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is the largest of its kind in the world. Until now, emissions allowances have mostly been given away free. That'll all change in 2013, when emitters will have to buy them in an auction. Theoretically this will distribute allowances most efficiently.

However, 60% of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions don't fall under the ETS. For these sources, which include road and sea transport, buildings, services, and agriculture, the EU deal introduces "effort sharing." The goal will be to reduce these non-ETS emissions by 10% between 2013 and 2020. These legislative efforts will also support carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects with 300 million dedicated ETS allowances.

Europe will also be cracking down on auto emissions, with a target of an average of 120g of CO2/km for the whole car industry by 2012. Compare that to EU's current 160g, the worldwide average (mid-sized cars) of 198g, and a hefty 300g for SUVs.

Whether or not the EU can meet its aggressive targets, these countries are leading the world in government action on climate. If Europe can get 27 member countries' carbon copacetic, the U.S. should be able to take the first baby steps to climate control.