[adrianN]

Dumping a trillion dollars over twenty years into wind turbines, solar panels, batteries and power-to-gas would go a pretty long way without draconian measures. Providing strong monetary incentives to insulate buildings and install heat pumps doesn't have to be authoritarian either.

[dashundchen]

This! If we, the US, have the money to spend trillions to spend subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and the military industrial complex behind it, we have the money to green the economy, rebuild infrastucture and develop countless new industries and technologies.

There is so much upside and opportunity in attacking climate change and pollution, I cannot understand why so many are willing to bury their heads in the sand. Decarbonization and undoing the damage we done is the chance for a second industrial revolution, with a much higher quality of life.

[ssnistfajen]

None of these will work because a significant portion of the population in countries with elective governments do not believe in climate change at all. This means they will viciously oppose all climate change action plans so long as they are allowed a voice. Authoritarian measures become necessary (even if I don't necessarily advocate for it) when a large portion of the population are too short-sighted to decide what's best for themselves.

[hef19898]

That's what taxes are there for. E.g. in Germany we managed to implement a system to increase the share of renewables. That it wasn't perfect to begin with and was then screwed up but successive governments is a different story. What matters is that it worked.

I have the impression that most people opposing clinate change are afraid that the will loose something by the necessary changes, their cars, their perceived life style,... That's where politics come into play. Politicians have to communicate the necessary changes and come up with ways to manage the change without screwing the average Joe over. They found ways to divert billions to corporations with the best lobbyists, so there should be enough funds to combaz climate change. And once the western world started we are already half way there. The Paris accords used to be a global treaty, so there can be a global approach.

[polotics]

Hallo Leute. Believe me I would really like nothing more than for you to be right when you write:it worked The share of renewables may have risen, but at huge costs, and most importantly the installed capacity of non renewable plants has not been reduced, mostly because of intermittency of renewables. The net result: all the plants, just with lower utilisation. For nuclear this is a tragedy because the marginal costs of production are minimal, lower utilisation just hits profitability, which may indirectly be raising risks. For coal, well just look up how much the Energiewende Germany still mines... More on this here: https://jancovici.com/en/energy-transition/societal-choices/...

[ssnistfajen]

Increasing taxes is exactly what people would oppose, and a party that promises to scrap/not implement the tax will take opportunity to capture votes. This shouldn't be hard to understand.

[graeme]

If I'm reading these charts right, we currently invest roughly $300 billion per year in renewables. And more in networks, at least some of which must be for renewables.

And global carbon emissions are at their highest ever.

It's good we've built renewables rather than fossil. But the scale of the problem is WAY bigger than 1 trillion over 20 years.

https://www.iea.org/wei2018/

[sunshinelackof]

I can't imagine building subsidies and alternative fuels will undo the last 200 years of emissions. Structural changes that will reorganize our lives will be necessary. We are in a privileged position, in that we can make these structural changes in a favorable way now before we're faced with a reality that forces these changes on us.

[hef19898]

Despite all I said above, I'm sceptical. People have an ugly and annoying tendency to ignore the truth until reality bites them into their asses. They neglect cancer prevention because the risks of getting are so low while in rwality they are just afraid of the results. And that is just one example.