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‘Hopeless and broken’: why the world’s top climate scientists are in despair
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 08 May 2024
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It boils down to political will to efficiently fund the transition. We can let planes fly - no simple solution to that. Put subsidies for green steel - currently costlier, not many companies will adopt too soon Build more public transport - fuck dem cars Enable remote work Invest in farmers to make the transition to electric tractors, then cut out gas subsidies
These are doable today, the funds should come easily if we don't let billionaires get away without paying taxes. Side note: 1 billion is a tremendous amount of money, but the top billionaires are worth 200 billions!!!
It's not just a matter of funding renewables. If there exists production of fossil fuels and these are allowed to be burnt, the current economic system is going to look for economic opportunities where it is possible to turn those fossil fuels into money - and it will find them, because energy is the foundation of all economic activity. In this way, the renewable transition is never-ending, because it will continue to try and fulfill an energy demand that is ever growing.
That is also true. In production perspective there's no sense to keep a small production quantity alive just for a limited application. Then we'll arrive at the conclusion that governments need to be able to regulate businesses with objective policies - not affected by industry lobbying. But that would need a very robust system of governance where the people cannot be bought out, ideally.
That's why in my view the key here is the policy - where to subsidize and not, where to tax and stop issuing permits, taking EOL pumps accountable etc.