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Comment by FisherGuy44 | Hacker News Reader

It seemed really expensive in the beginning, but now even more so, given they'll do it 5 years faster. I wonder if the investment pays off as it's implemented. Or does it pay off at all? It's really cheaper to move from coal to other ways of producing electricity? I'm asking about the current state of things because I'm sure in the future it'll be cheaper and cheaper

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With the current CO2 certificate price it's doable and that price is only going up. Germany reduced carbon emissions by roughly 10% over the last two years. [0] The German "Energiewende" is mostly an example that politicians and the coal industry are slowing down technological progress. From 2008 to 2018 there was a whole decade of stagnation and suddenly they manage to trim the fat in just two years? CO2 pricing works extremely well but only if the price is high enough and only if the government isn't actively trying to dismantle the green tech sector.

[0] https://www.cleanenergywire.org/sites/default/files/styles/p...

it's not expensive considering the alternative is we all die in a giant fireball.

edit: Also currently on HN frontpage is "Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of global leaders finds" so maybe adverting that is worth the cost.

> we all die in a giant fireball.

Hyperbole like that will only lead to the rest of your arguments getting ignored. Even Venus, with its runaway greenhouse effect, is not a "giant fireball" (we even have pictures of its surface).

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