I mean, if we wanted to decarbonize at break neck speeds - nuclear power and geoengineering are right there. Instead we are working with a very narrow band of acceptable solutions.
Gen III+ or earlier nuclear is a way of slowly solving 10% of the problem. It's not fast and it's limited by an irreplaceable critical mineral the overuse of which would delay full deployment of Gen IV in many scenarios.
It's not yet clear that Gen IV is faster or less limited by other critical minerals.
Dedicating your shipyards to building offshore wind cranes gets more carbon off the plate sooner than adapting it to build reactor vessels even if you only use the crane for a few years. Building more heavy casting is slow.
Every other step of the supply chain is even slower and more prone to overruns than the glacial pace of reactor construction.
Geoengineering is the last ditch emergency button. Once we hit it we can't unhit it and it might break other things.
It's not yet clear that Gen IV is faster or less limited by other critical minerals.
Dedicating your shipyards to building offshore wind cranes gets more carbon off the plate sooner than adapting it to build reactor vessels even if you only use the crane for a few years. Building more heavy casting is slow.
Every other step of the supply chain is even slower and more prone to overruns than the glacial pace of reactor construction.
Geoengineering is the last ditch emergency button. Once we hit it we can't unhit it and it might break other things.