[readhn]

"If consumers were beating down car dealership doors to buy every EV they could, car manufacturers would shift heavily towards EVs. If everyone buying a house were looping in a solar panel installation into their loan, we'd probably see more competition and faster price drops in solar panels."

this logic is part of the problem. you live in a privileged bubble where people buy electric cars and install solar panels on their houses. Median American household has only $10K saved up, many below that and live paycheck to paycheck. What EV/What homes/ solar panels? First we have to solve socio-economic wealth gap issue THEN address climate change.

[GVIrish]

Why can't we do both? For people who don't own homes, we need to invest in clean energy sources for the power grid. For people that can't afford EV's now, if there were actually better demand for EV's auto manufacturers could make the investments to reach the economies of scale so that more people could afford an EV, PHEV, FCEV, whatever it may be. And if there is a big shift towards clean energy that will create new jobs as well as reduce pollution that causes health problems, particularly in low income neighborhoods.

On an individual level, if someone has the means to reduce their carbon footprint, why shouldn't they? On a national level, developed nations have more capital they can spend on shifting to clean energy. Poorer countries won't be able to afford to make some of those shifts. If the nations with the means make the shifts first, they can help bring down the costs of some of those green technologies to where it's more feasible for poorer nations in the world.

We're already at the point that wind and solar power is starting to be cheaper than coal power. Continuing along that path means the developing world can continue developing and expanding their economies with clean energy instead of fossil fuels.