This can be fixed with carbon tariffs. Calculate theoretical carbon tax impacts on their exports, and then levy tariffs of the same value.

I didn’t say we don’t need to get rid of past CO2, I just don’t believe air-sucking machines are a viable way to do so.

And it seems only Northern Europe and China even give a shit about the climate. Yes, China is expanding coal plants but they are also worrying more about the climate than others.

I assume you mean "out of countries that are actually in a position to do something about it". Plenty of countries that are immediately threatened by rising seas levels and increasingly erratic rainfall affecting agriculture etc. are pretty worried about it. But they're all tiny emitters...

OTOH I'm not that convinced northern Europe gives a shit about it, given how much oil/gas Norway is drilling and how reluctant Germany has been to reduce its fossil fuel dependence (and now geo-politics has forced its hand on oil, it's ramping up coal usage again!).

The evidence is pretty hard to ignore though - nobody who can really do anything about it is going to give a shit until it's all too late.

> I assume you mean "out of countries that are actually in a position to do something about it"...The evidence is pretty hard to ignore though - nobody who can really do anything about it is going to give a shit until it's all too late.

Yes, one of our founders is an anthropologist and she has been doing field work in underrepresented communities. Rich countries (think they) can afford to pretend there's no such thing as climate change but nobody outside these wealthy enclaves has any doubt.

The reason we spend effort on this is that the atmosphere touches everyone, so we should try to figure out the interests and concerns of as many people as possible to make sure we do our best to do things that help everyone.

It's interesting that the biggest opponents of climate repair seem to come from Germany, USA, UK, and Canada.

> OTOH I'm not that convinced northern Europe gives a shit about it, given how much oil/gas Norway is drilling and how reluctant Germany has been to reduce its fossil fuel dependence (and now geo-politics has forced its hand on oil, it's ramping up coal usage again!).

Yes, it's frustrating that in the face of a war the convo switches immediately back to "drill" rather than "windmill". A big part of that is that corporations speak in terms of benefits, and tailor their messages to specific customer groups (this topic is probably 15% of HN posts and comments) while the conversations of governments and NGOs focus on features and risks.

But I do think it's a top of mind issue in europe, and the continued expansion of the scope of the ETS is a good example. See a long reply I wrote to "tito" to see why there's a complex combination of repairs and continued damage that is unavoidable (point 1 in my comment)

But one way or another it's the OECD who'll have to pay for the cleanup.

China has many hands. They will end up closing the coal plants as they turn out uncompetitive. China doesn't mind building things and leaving them unused; they have millions of hi-rise apartments that will never be occupied, and indeed have no plumbing or wiring because that was known up front.

That is definitely a different thing though - it's well known China was playing games to artificially manipulate their GDP and currency. The coal plants are actually being used because they have demand for the produced power.

Yes, but operating them costs a lot more than the renewables being built out. Similarly, for the nukes under construction. So, as the renewables come online, more expensive generation will go offline. That stuff will all be mothballed because continuing to operate it costs a lot more than shutting it down.

China has the advantage that they do not need to continue operating expensive equipment just because it was expensive.

Never is such a big word. Any country will relinquish fossil fuel use when it is economically feasible.

You mean any country will relinquish fossil fuel use when it's economically profitable. Only some countries will choose to do it when it's simply feasible.