It will, in aggregate, be much cheaper to avoid climate change than to pursue the status quo. For example, a recent paper showed a cost of $62 trillion to convert the entire global economy off fossil fuels, and a payoff timescale of only 6 years. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33135183 There is still a lot of momentum, but as the effects get more noticeable and more expensive, there will be lots of cash and political will to get moving.