No, the market will continue to completely screw the environment unless the government steps in.
>If gasoline and diesel fuels have such strong negative externalities, the state should tax these fuels
Petrol and diesel are already heavily taxed, at £0.58/L (at current GBP/USD exchange prices that works out at $0.76/L USD, whereas the equivalent tax in the US is $0.05/L).
>These top-down, non-market edicts damage the ability to the market to find appropriate resource allocation via the price mechanism and thereby make everyone worse off.
Oh the holy market! Can't disrupt the holy market, even when it's destroying the planet.
What makes you believe that?
> Petrol and diesel are already heavily taxed, at £0.58/L
But people are still using regular gasoline cars. Why might that be?
> Oh the holy market! Can't disrupt the holy market, even when it's destroying the planet.
The market is what's given us the modern technological civilization that made the computer you're using to post your comments. Top-down control has always made us worse off in the end.
Setting a date well in advance is also helpful for production planning, it gives the market some certainty in developing their products for the cutoff, and this has to be done early to be useful.