Small carmakers producing less than 10,000 vehicles per year can negotiate weaker targets until 2036, when they will face the zero-emission requirement.

New Zealand will become the first country to price agricultural emissions, including methane emissions from burping cows and sheep, whose digestive systems produce methane when breaking down vegetation.

Plants near populous regions and the capital New Delhi will have to pay penalties to operate from end-2024, while utilities in less polluting areas will be penalized after end-2026.

The new regulations approved by the Biden administration reverse previous, less stringent rules his predecessor Donald Trump had backed, and show how Biden's White House is using regulatory power to curb emissions.