[CobrastanJorji]

I totally agree that climate change is a far more serious problem than quantum computing, but we do actually spend quite a bit on climate change, if not nearly as much as the problem warrants.

Depending on how you measure it, we theoretically spend about a trillion bucks a year worldwide on climate change ( https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/global-l... ) and maybe a couple billion bucks a year on quantum computers.

[eru]

Measures to combat climate change are weird, and also politicised in weird ways.

Eg the US administration like to pretend that climate change is a top priority, but then complains when Chinese tax payers generously subsidise solar cells and electric cars for American consumers.

[mensetmanusman]

These technologies are manufactured with stricter environmental controls when done in the US versus China. The picture isn't as simple as it may seem.

[eru]

How does this complicate the picture?

The environmental controls you are talking about mostly protect the local environment. Protecting the local environment is great, but crudely speaking, the global climate doesn't much care about whether you dump some toxic waste in some part of China.

What I hear in complaints about the exports from the Americans is that they are worried about good old jobs for good old American boys and girls (preferably in a union that is a strong voting block one way or another). So I would take the Americans at their word here.

Yet again, if the local environment in China was a priority of the administration that outweighed concern about climate change, you would see a very different policy. Instead of just putting tariffs and other restrictions on imports of some Chinese goods. You can probably come up with your own examples.