FACTBOX: How the EU climate plan affects industry, citizens

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union industries and citizens will experience diverse and profound changes due to EU plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

Here are some of the key impacts:

* Employment -- While industries that are slow to adapt will suffer, more agile rivals will tap into the opportunities for "clean tech." Denmark, home to the world's biggest wind turbine maker Vestas, has already been quick to capitalize, as have Spain and Germany.

The European Wind Energy Association predicts the renewables sector will deliver 2 million jobs by 2020.

Many more will be created as the EU spends an estimated 1.2 trillion euros ($1.55 trillion) overhauling its electricity and gas infrastructure.

* Farming -- Plans to get 10 percent of EU road transport fuel from renewable sources will initially be met using biofuels. That's good news for EU farmers, creating new demand for biofuel crops such as sugar beet and rapeseed.

But that demand will tail off as electric cars roll out and new technologies emerge to make biofuels from forestry, farm and household waste.

* Power generators -- Plans to make power generators pay for permits to emit carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, will hit the biggest polluters hardest.

That's bad news for coal-intensive generators like Britain's Drax and Germany's RWE, but good news for those with nuclear, like France's EDF, or green energy like Spain's Iberdrola Renovables.

* Electricity users -- Power generators are already passing the cost of emissions permits to consumers. Poland says electricity prices could double, hurting industry and poorer households, but the European Commission says the rise will be just 10-15 percent.

Italy and Germany fear rising costs for electricity and emissions will hit heavy industries like steel and aluminum as well as manufacturers.

* Car makers -- Plans to curb average car emissions by a fifth by 2015 and 40 percent by 2020 will hit gas-guzzling luxury cars hardest. That's bad news for Germany, home to sector leaders Audi, BMW and Mercedes.

Italy's Fiat and France's Renault, which make less-polluting cars, should prosper. Electric car makers like U.S.-based Tesla could gain new business, so will battery makers like Boston Power and Johnson Controls Inc.

Oil -- Europe spends about $440 billion a year on importing oil, about 3.4 percent of the bloc's gross domestic product and more than double a package now proposed to stimulate the economy. Most of the money goes to oil exporters like Russia, Norway and Saudi Arabia, and while the flow will continue it will not increase as quickly as before. Any future savings will be spent on renewable energy, keeping money and jobs at home.

* Airlines -- Air travel will gradually become more costly as airlines are forced to pay for the carbon dioxide they pump out high into the earth's atmosphere.

That could put an end to the phenomenon of weekend breaks abroad that was sparked in the last decade by the rise of low-cost airlines like Ryanair. The streets of Dublin, Kiev and Riga may also see fewer drunken stag and hen parties.

Bus and Rail -- Cleaner, greener cars will initially cost more to buy, which combined with rising vehicle taxes and fuel prices will push more people onto public transport. That's good news for transport groups like Britain's Arriva and National Express, which have spent the last few years buying up bus and rail businesses around Europe.

(Reporting by Pete Harrison; editing by James Jukwey)