However, places that have 100% clean electricity are often isolated. You need to ship in all equipment, which is made elsewhere, and fly in all personnel. This quickly adds up:

https://heimildin.is/grein/24581/climeworks-capture-fails-to...

Capturing carbon from the source, like a coal power plant, is much easier. But the capture rate is only 50% on average, so a coal power plant with carbon capture is still horrible while also ridiculously expensive, so it doesn't really make sense.

On the other hand, with the money the EU spends on climate measures, the results leave a lot to be desired. The EU has prioritized things like hydrogen, biofuels and carbon capture, which all have very little to show for.

If Europe had spent all that money on EVs and heat pumps, emissions would have decreased drastically while prices woundn't even go up. But that's not possible if you want to preserve old jobs. Then you have to do those stupid things that aren't viable, like e-fuels for cars.

I'm also not sure if replacing coal with gas did actually decrease emissions on the whole. The gas lobby is a large reason why electrification has stalled in Europe, while China's coal lobby helped electric trucks to reach 50% share last month.

Some parts of the energy transition are profitable, like EVs and heat pumps. This is where Europe dropped the ball.

Other parts are unprofitable, like hydrogen. This is what Europe has prioritized, without anything to show for it.

Then there are the ugly parts, like most carbon capture or importing virgin palm oil mislabelled as used cooking oil. Those things don't even decrease emissions. Again, Europe has focused too much on this.

If Europe would simply have banned combustion engines and gas boilers, emissions would have decreased drastically while prices would also decrease. Alas, Europe prioritized bad stuff instead.

More ironically, air conditioning is tolerated if powered by oil (like in cars), but not by electricity (like in buildings). At least Europe is better at EV adoption, but still far behind many parts of Asia.

https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/price_average_map/char...

Furthermore, old nuclear is already paid for, and hence often the cheapest option where available:

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/EUROPE-ENERGY/NUCLEARPOWER/...

You'd need a dictatorship where people's voices don't matter, but then there's no right of ownership either.

Buy America Act makes buses roughly three times more expensive, and then they use decades-old technology due to a lack of competition.

The MTA in NYC has two-person subway crews, which is almost unprecedented in this day and age. BART could be driverless if unions wouldn't revolt.

There's an irony that American unions are strong enough to prevent automatization, but weak enough to fear it (unlike say Denmark or France).

https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-does-the-world-need-carbon-ca...

Meanwhile, the left in the UK doesn't want to drill (so less money for electrification) while the right in the UK doesn't want to electrify (so less money due to more imports). Why doesn't anyone want to copy the Norwegian model?

This year, oil and gas are projected to fall as a whole, although coal is still expected to grow:

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-global-fossil-fuel-emis...