I disagree. The world is already undergoing a major/radical change away from fossil fuels because the public wants it and politicians know they only have a few years left to keep lying to voters. Also the fossil fuels companies know their years are numbered and they are busy getting into alternative energies.
I don’t think either part of that statement is true. The world is undergoing a minor, relatively modest change away from fossil fuels - which still comprise the vast majority of the world’s electrical power generation and virtually all of its other energy needs, because the public doesn’t want to pay more for energy in order to internalize the carbon externality.
We are adopting renewables at the margins, which means there’s a lot of opportunity for growth and profit in that business (which is why the fossil majors want in), and which depresses the opportunities for growth in the fossil fuels business. But shifting where marginal new production takes place and changing the production of what is already in place fast enough to matter are two very different things. That’s Smil’s point.
We’re going to do some small, cheap things that aren’t enough to fight climate change - and we’ll pretend that those things are major and radical. And then we won’t do the things that could be enough to fight climate change - because they’re so enormous that they’re effectively impossible.
Albaby