A Trade in coal and steel powered the European Union’s formative years. Now the bloc wants to lead the world on climate responsibility, with a bumper package of proposals from expanding an emissions-trading system to banning fossil fuel cars to reach its 2050 target of carbon neutrality. But for all the aspirational visions, there are justified jitters that the European project’s original stakeholders as cited by Jean Monnet — the “miner in his pit, the steelworker in his steelworks and the broad ranks of consumers” — will get left behind in the process. Change is going to be “bloody hard,” as Frans Timmermans — the EU’s top official for climate policy — puts it, but even more so for those at the lower end of the income scale. Policies designed to raise the price of carbon and prod consumers towards lower emissions will affect everything from the price of flights to the cost of home heating bills. According to the EU’s own impact assessment, these are “significantly” bigger proportional costs for lower-income earners, who ironically are estimated to be among the least to blame for carbon pollution added to the atmosphere since 1990.