The two party system of the US occlude the matter so lets look at the rich well functioning democracies of Europe instead. Better education means there isn't anything resembling the climate denial movement of the us, and on average people are place climate concerns higher on their list of priorities. Every single one of these countries has a green party or similar whose primary purpose is the preventing ecological damage and climate change, and most argue it can be done without or with a minimum of loss of wealth and productivity. Not a single one of these countries is in a majority and most are around 10%. The ones which acknowledge that preventing a 4C rise requires massive investments and outright forced unpleasant changes will be required usually fail to go above 5%. And this is in the richest countries, the poorer countries dont give a rats ass about it, and the green parties are token efforts that idealists vote for knowing that their representatives will mostly make the others feel bad, while helping pass policy which supports the economy at the cost of eg climate as long as a token effort to minimize the negatives are used.
This shows that the vast majority of people in these countries, while publicly concerned, and privately mildly alarmed about climate change, prioritize other things and that their politicians are responding to their constituent priorities. Why would this be different in the US? everything from median education to city planning, predicts that US population cares much less about environmental impact. Poor people living on welfare in some Nordic country sometimes care about climate change, but mostly dont, certainly much less so than average citizens. The number of poor in the US who prioritize climate change over saving 5 bucks on gas so their kid can eat that night is zero.
When people aren't lying to themselves, its easy to see that preventing climate change is a policy favored by, and forced upon the public, by elites. Speaking as one, if of the lowest possible level, obviously we should do it. I'm certainly willing to sacrifice the poor both abroad and at home, but I think tigers are cool, that nature is nice to look at, and I would like to keep it that way. On the rare occasion I happen to meet some of my old friends turned politicians, I naturally point this out. And they listen, far more than they should, given neither my phd nor my career is in an applicable field. The few times I meet 0.001%ers, they have been more concerned than I. They haven't needed to status signal for decades, certainly not in private to someone like me, and they all had significant interests in industry which would be negatively affected.
This changes the story of who is preventing such policy and of if its democratic. There isn't a conspiracy by the elite to prevent climate change from being solved, if anything its the opposite, and the problem is that common people aren't stupid enough to let us get away with it.