EU global warming crackdown will cost every family £730 a year

Under laws proposed by Brussels, Britain will be forced to generate 40 per cent of its electricity from green sources within 12 years.

Currently, the figure for wind, wave and hydroelectric power is just two per cent.

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To meet the target - and avoid hefty fines - energy experts say thousands more wind turbines will be needed.

The move would anger anti-turbine campaigners and represent an enormous engineering challenge.

Brussels says the proposals are essential to curb global warming even though environmentalists say they do not go far enough.

The European Commission claimed the package would cost the average European citizen £115 a year. Britons will pay far more because the country lags in the green energy stakes.

Open Europe, a Eurosceptic think-tank supported by Marks & Spencer boss Sir Stuart Rose, said a typical family would be paying a £730 levy by 2020.

In order to produce enough green energy by that date, Britain would

need to build two giant wind turbines every day.

"Britain has such a low level of renewable energy right now, the cost of meeting this target will be higher than for most other EU countries," said Open Europe spokesman Hugo Robinson.

The climate change plans were unveiled by Jose Manuel Barroso, the Portuguese European Commission president.

The commission pledged last year to generate 20 per cent of Europe's energy from renewable sources - such as wave, tidal, hydroelectric and wood burning - within 12 years.

Europe is demanding that 15 per cent of all the energy used in Britain for electricity, transport and heating comes from renewables - a rise of 13 per cent on the current level.

No other country faces such a large increase.

Britain is already committed to ensuring that 10 per cent of the energy used for transport is biofuel - produced from crops rather than oil - so further opportunities for green transport fuel are limited.

It will also be difficult to use more green energy for heating. Nine out of ten UK homes have gas central heating boilers which are difficult to convert.

That means the electricity sector must mop up the rest of the target.

According to the Government, an astonishing 40 per cent of the UK's electricity will have to be generated by renewable sources by 2020 - compared with just five per cent now.

Some of the shortfall could be made up by tidal power.

The controversial Severn Barrage alone could provide around 5 per cent of the UK's electricity. But most of the rest will come from wind power.

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The UK already has 2,000 wind turbines but the British Wind Energy Association estimates that another 5,000 will be needed on land - and thousands more at sea.

The commission also wants to expand the carbon emissions trading scheme, in which companies have to buy permits if they emit carbon dioxide.

From 2013, the scheme will cover more industrial sectors, while power companies will have to buy their permits at auction for the first time - rather than be handed them for free.

For industries not covered by the scheme, such as transport and housing, Europe plans to set new national emissions targets.

Before the commission's proposals are adopted, they will have to be endorsed by MEPs and member states. The final package might not come into force before the end of 2009.

Any countries that fail to meet the target will be fined.

The Government estimates that meeting the renewable energy target could cost as much as £6billion.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said: "This plan shows exactly what we are aiming for globally - a comprehensive and effective agreement to tackle climate change."