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Austria wants to become climate neutral by 2040, a decade earlier than most of the European Union, but doing so will require deep structural changes to the economy which go beyond installing more solar panels and windmills. Despite already generating some fourth-fifths of its electricity with renewable hydropower, the country's emissions have continued to rise over the last three decades because of industrial pollution and a love affair with cars.

That's led the coalition government, made up of the conservative People's Party and the environmentalist Green Party, to champion what officials call "eco-social-tax reform" that would be the centerpiece of Austria's climate policy. Leaders want to put a price on emissions and bake that cost into everything from road transportation to home heating. Essentially, citizens would be on the hook for every ton of planet-warming carbon dioxide they emit. 

"We need new ways of thinking about our tax codes to make them fit for the future," Leonore Gewessler, minister for climate, energy and transportation, said in an interview. "We need a fair price for greenhouse gas pollution in the atmosphere, which makes climate-friendly behavior cheaper."

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