Is this your only argument? Because western countries haven't figured it out no other country can? Do you imply that western countries have exclusive power over knowledge that is unavailable to other countries? Necessity drives innovation. Don't forget that! Today the fully developed Western countries have no necessity to figure out the solutions that are unique to developing countries who are poised to take over as developed countries of the future. Once upon a time, the "fully developed countries" of today were developing countries who faced problems of similar magnitude and tackled them because it was necessary to do so. Today the "fully developed countries" have no "necessity" to move to solar on a massive scale but developing countries do. Don't think even for once that all the innovation happens only in "fully developed western countries".
I think the argument would be that a country that is trying to modernize a massive population isn't likely to go the route of spending a massive amount of money to R&D a new technology when it isn't really needed.
It's not that they can't, it's that probably won't.
I disagree. How did you come to the conclusion that we don't need to fix this problem? Do you live in any developing country?
We are already spending a good amount of money on building solar power grids. Some portion of that money will be funded by developed countries based on the deal signed at the COP21 summit (100 billion USD per year). But obviously this isn't reported in the Western World. Read more about it here: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-why-is-western-media-so...
If anyone will be most affected by Climate change it is going to be India and neighboring countries. The recent Chennai floods is a grim reminder of the impact of climate change. Not to mention receding coastline that is impacting the livelihood of fisherman and causing relocation of villages. Not just India but even Bangladesh is also being heavily affected by the receding coastline problem (Read more about it here: http://www.academia.edu/4066475/Changing_Face_of_Bangladesh_...). Maldives (another neighbor) won't even exist by 2100 if this continues (read more about it here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/is-it-too-late-...). And you expect us to work towards modernizing the country by ignoring this imminent threat? What will be the point of modernization if it's going to be destroyed by floods or earthquakes?
But is the West concerned about these problems? Obviously not! And we don't expect you to. This is a problem of the developing nations and we have to find the solution ourselves. The only help that developing nations asked from the developed nations in COP21 summit was monetary aid to carry out building the necessary infrastructure and R&D to tackle this problem and I think we are headed in the right direction.