Induced Demand exists and fossil infrastructure keeps nominal cost down, while externalising fossil impact.
Big Fossil must pay, consumers must pay (those who can’t switch must be helped) because climate costs will appear anyways and they must be paid to keep civilisation afloat eventually.
Fossil fuel that is too cheap is a regulatory issue of internalising true costs of burning fossil fuels.
The demand exists because there is machinery all around the world that was designed to run on fuels derived from fossil hydrocarbons. To eliminate the demand, all of that machinery must be replaced with alternatives that do not run on fossil fuels.
Some of the alternatives exist now and are available on the market today, although some are still prohibitively expensive for many, and not all of the newer machines have all the necessary supporting infrastructure. Much more needs to be done by governments to make non fossil fuel machinery accessible and affordable, and to rapidly build out the necessary infrastructure.
Some of the existing machinery does not yet have a non fossil fuel alternative available. For that machinery, fossil fuels are still necessary. Once again, governments must do more, to help speed up R&D on new technologies, and to make sure those technologies will be affordable and accessible once they are ready for market deployment, and, again, that all the necessary supporting infrastructure is in place.
Induced Demand exists and fossil infrastructure keeps nominal cost down, while externalising fossil impact.
Big Fossil must pay, consumers must pay (those who can’t switch must be helped) because climate costs will appear anyways and they must be paid to keep civilisation afloat eventually.
Fossil fuel that is too cheap is a regulatory issue of internalising true costs of burning fossil fuels.
The demand exists because there is machinery all around the world that was designed to run on fuels derived from fossil hydrocarbons. To eliminate the demand, all of that machinery must be replaced with alternatives that do not run on fossil fuels.
Some of the alternatives exist now and are available on the market today, although some are still prohibitively expensive for many, and not all of the newer machines have all the necessary supporting infrastructure. Much more needs to be done by governments to make non fossil fuel machinery accessible and affordable, and to rapidly build out the necessary infrastructure.
Some of the existing machinery does not yet have a non fossil fuel alternative available. For that machinery, fossil fuels are still necessary. Once again, governments must do more, to help speed up R&D on new technologies, and to make sure those technologies will be affordable and accessible once they are ready for market deployment, and, again, that all the necessary supporting infrastructure is in place.