It's not a great analogy. The possible downsides to breaking before a car are slim. The downside to immediately stopping burning fossil fuels are huge including disrupting the global economy, life critical heating/cooling in cold/warm climates and basically modern life globally.

We could barely lock down for a pandemic. Imagine telling someone (or entire winter cities) they will likely freeze to death today to reduce emissions.

That is not comparable to hitting the breaks to lessen a crash.