By Valerie Volcovici, Jarrett Renshaw and David Shepardson

Dec 15 (Reuters) - President-elect Joe Biden is close to announcing a slate of Cabinet nominees who will be central to his administration’s sweeping plan to fight climate change, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The picks include a diverse list of nominees to head the departments of Energy, Transportation and the Interior, as well as a new office leading domestic climate policy coordination at the White House, the sources said.

On their shoulders would be Biden’s goal of moving the United States to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 – a once-unimaginable task that will require the world’s second-largest emitter to overhaul major parts of its economy, from cars, trucks and planes to power plants, farms and buildings.

The agenda is intended to help the United States and the rest of the world avoid the worst effects of global warming, while creating millions of clean-energy jobs. But the plan was a lightning rod of contention during the presidential contest, with Republican President Donald Trump and his allies arguing it was unnecessary and would bankrupt the country.

Among the most high-profile picks, Biden’s transition team is expected to name Gina McCarthy, former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama administration, to lead domestic climate policy coordination, two sources familiar with the process said. Biden's team did not comment.

McCarthy, 66, would oversee domestic climate change policy efforts across all government agencies and departments, and serve as a counterpart to former Secretary of State John Kerry, whom Biden appointed as his special envoy on climate change.

She is currently president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national environmental group. As EPA administrator to President Barack Obama, she crafted some of his administration's signature climate policies, including the Clean Power Plan to slash emissions from power plants.

Her deputy will be Ali Zaidi, chairman of climate policy and finance for New York state, according to the sources.

Biden has also tapped Pete Buttigieg to lead the U.S. Transportation Department, making him the first of Biden's Democratic rivals for the presidency to land a role in his Cabinet, Biden's team confirmed.

"This is a moment of tremendous opportunity-to create jobs, meet the climate challenge, and enhance equity for all," Buttigieg said later in a tweet.

The appointment of Buttigieg, 38, is another step in a meteoric political rise for the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and would put him in charge of a sprawling federal agency that oversees the nation's airlines, highways and transit systems – the biggest source of U.S. emissions.