> China isn't doing anything, so why should we?
If the entire human race comes to an end, the last two gravestones will read: "the guy in the other grave is to blame."
https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-is-china-the-main-climate-c...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/01/16/next-chin...
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/10/01/worlds-largest-solar-...
And the irony is that such a power plant is an extreme strategic and economic resource. During wartime you no longer have to worry about how to import ever dwindling fossil fuels. During peace time, you have limitless negotiation power.
Majority renewable energy would likely push a country into a realm that is far beyond a superpower. And China seems to have caught on to this - they have probably realized how much money they are burning while securing coal reserves around the world (e.g. Zimbabwe).
For developed countries that have high productivity growth, falling demand as the population ages and low inflation you actually have to come up with random ideas to keep the population employed. It doesn't even matter what you do. You could let them dig holes and fill them. What's important is that the money goes to people who spend it.
You know. Instead of letting the government be the investor of last resort, why not just introduce a carbon tax and carbon tariff and just let the private sector do all the investments? It would revitalize the economy far more than a bunch of trump style tax cuts.
Green investments for climate change? Fuck that, let's save capitalism with green investments!
The poor and first nations communities have not been well served by the current paradigm, and in fact the best outcome for them is generally left leaning policy that actually honors seniority of water rights, enforcement of environmental laws, and policies that support critical first nations fisheries and other resources (stop damming salmon runs, displacing the tribes and selling the water and power to large corporate farmers would be a great start).
It is the political right that has largely trampled the poor and first nations into the dust over the past decades, on both sides of that border.