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Comment by graeme | Hacker News Reader

>The oligarchs of the world have more than enough money to fix all the climate issues, but since they derive their wealth from exploiting the climate, there is no hope for a fix from them.

No they don’t. Money isn’t something you can turn into zero carbon infrastructure at the snap of a finger.

We have a very large global population and carbon keeps it alive, and materially satisfied. Shut it off too fast, and people get dead and grumpy. Shut it off too slow, and our civilization collapses.

We’re all part of the system, and the system is the problem. I think the best thing oligarchs could do is buy politicians to change the system to incentivize replacing carbon in a way that doesn’t make people dead or grumpy. Grumpy people vote out politicians with long term views for those who offer short term solutions.

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Did you forget just how easily the oligarchs provided hundreds of millions in funding for the Notre Dame when it caught fire this year? It doesn't deserve that funding, but climate change does. The oligarchs splurge like there is no tomorrow.

....hundreds of millions doesn't solve climate change.

Mostly oligarchs invest their money in companies. So, they own shares. They could sell the shares to someone, and then they have money.

So, suppose you had a net worth of $10 billion in shares. You now have the same in liquid wealth.

How do you stop climate change? You seem to think it is easy to do with money, pieces of paper and ones and zeros in a bank account.

What do they buy, off the shelf, that solves the problem, easy as that?

You could perhaps buy rights in an oil field and then refuse to mine it. That would help.

You could fund research into solar cells or invest into the market. Though investing money isn't what makes a venture successful: customers actually have to buy the resulting product.

So how do you use your $10 billion to make people stop buying carbon? You seem to think it would be very, very easy. So tell us what practical step they could take, on their own without popular support. Simply by being an oligarch.

Spend a ton of money lobbying for alternate power (nuclear plants, renewables). Push legislation that cuts down on carbon footprints (e.g., better networks for remote work, encourage building mixes that reduce commuting).

Ten billion isn't that much money compared to the problem, but you can do some smart things with it.

That + basic research would be my goto. It would definitely be helpful, I agree.

I just wanted to show OP that the scale of the problem isn't something oligarchs can "easily" solve.

For one, sponsor lobbyists for renewables and invest in renewable energy plants. Do this especially where this competition from fossil fuel plants, with a clear intent to attempt to shut them down due to lack of business. Most customers will buy cheaper energy from renewables.

Eyeballing this IEA report, globally there's about $600 billion per year spent on renewables, battery storage, and nuclear: https://www.iea.org/wei2018/

And let me assure you they have lobbyists.

Meanwhile, you have $10 billion to spend, once. It isn't an annual flow of money.

More renewable investment is helpful! But I fail to see how oligarchs could solve the problem as simply as you suggest simply by investing in renewables and lobbying.

And yet Notre Dame isn’t repaired/rebuilt yet. If all it needed were money then it would have been done the day after.

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