CO2 is something we can control. If it isn't the whole answer, then we're screwed anyway. But doing nothing is totally irresponsible. Too much on the line, right?
Firefly Energy [1] came up with a good-enough Lead Acid battery - "the energy of NiMH, for the cost of lead", fully recyclable with existing infrastructure, etc. Their batteries would have been perfectly useful for low-range electric vehicles like Postal delivery trucks (20-miles/day) and home energy storage (solar panels, shifting power use to off-peak, etc).
But they ramped up for production in the midst of the housing collapse (2006-ish?), and ran out of money. The government only gave money to "advanced chemistry" battery technologies. Firefly Energy had to declare bankruptcy, last I read an Indian company bought the IP... and it's gone nowhere.
> CO2 is something we can control. If it isn't the whole answer, then we're screwed anyway.
A friend has told me of the 'Maunder minimum' [2] phenomenon, and that our Sun might be preparing to reduce its output for 30-45 years. If that happens, all efforts to suppress CO2 will be for naught.
It is better to focus on the desired outcome than on the present problem.
Edit OTOH I dp appreciate your mentioning various usful technologies like these batteries, but they are drops in the ocean so far. I hope they help, but they need to be on top of a fast reduction in carbon outfput, and given this year's figures we may be in for a terribly bumpy ride anyway.