We should all strive to do what we can, regardless of what others do.
Setting an example and making investments eventually trickles down abroad with technologies being cheaper, with foreign companies being pushed by genuine or PR reasons to make investments on being greener in those countries etc.
Setting an example is a minor point - but that second bit "making technologies cheaper" that's where you'll really find compelling reasons for non-western nations to switch. If the world is producing so many tons to solar cells so that western nations can convert over and the demand starts to slow as their conversion processes near their end then those production lines can find new customers.
The idea that foreign countries will be influenced or pushed by Western countries "setting a good example" into making investments that would benefit their countries from an environmental standpoint is absurd. Do you really think that Chad, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. (who are all at the top of that list for countries with the worst air pollution) give a damn about their air quality? Or PR reasons for bettering their countries? Not even slightly. The leaders of those countries couldn't care less about "their people" because their goal is to keep them poor, uneducated and scared so they can stay rich and in power. This is painfully obvious and pretending it's not real won't help any advancements.
You're on your own mission so reasoning with you seems pointless.
You made up your mind and didn't even bother checking.
But I'll leave you with that. Solar gives 14'000 Iraqis job nowadays and villages fully solar powered are more and more common [1].
Chad too, which you mention, has multiple solar projects[2].
None of this would've happened without the rest of the world making important investments and making the technology cheap.
Setting examples and doing the right thing is morally important regardless of what others do. That still stands. And as an European I much hope for cleaner air, less smog, less gas heaters, etc.
It doesn't make sense to go the other way and have tens of thousands die each year because "it's cheaper if we use fossils".
As a society we have to move forwards and stop thinking it's all about the individual and economical stats.
Economical stats go up and we're as miserable and lonely and mentally unstable as we've ever been. We may at least leave a slightly cleaner and healthier world.
I'd hardly call it a 'mission' to truthfully say that third world countries are struggling with much bigger issues than emissions...and that they are also the worst offenders when it comes to pollution.
These countries may have some small successful projects, but as a whole, most of their citizens are burning whatever they can get their hands on to stay alive, and living in garbage piles. They're not doing higher-level thinking about large-scale green energy projects because they're still in basic human survival mode, and they're being kept there by oppressive dictators and regimes.
It is a crutch of Western society, and a saccharine statement of moral superiority, that we feel we must make the world a better place for everyone. We should demand the same effort from every other country on the planet.
If we keep hand-holding these countries, giving them access to cheaper infrastructure and technology while turning a blind eye to their subversion of Western society, their oppressive regimes and refusing to hold them accountable for their impact on the planet, then we will condemn them to the pitiful state they're in by assuming they can't do any better - while we prostrate ourselves doing everything we possibly can, and yet never reaching the goals we set.
Per capita western countries by far lead pollution in the world.
Even if you ignore per capita, just North America/Europe/Japan/Australia/NZ combined it represents 40% of pollution in the world, despite, combined, not even being 20% of the population.
>And as an European I much hope for cleaner air, less smog, less gas heaters, etc.
And everyone will be poorer. It's already happening in Europe. Coming from the tech world you probably don't notice because you are relatively wealthy. But your neighbors might.
And we have much bigger moral issues than energy...
The entire country of Portugal runs on renewables for extended time, with renewables being 60% of their energy mix.
I don't think they are any poorer because of that.
You need solid numbers and facts.
Don't forget Europe imports fossils at a high price and it makes us weak and dependent on geopolitics (see Russian invasion of Ukraine and its effects on our bills).
>We should all strive to do what we can, regardless of what others do
We will go broke trying to slash emissions while the rest of the world uses cheap energy to fuel their economic growth. The days of the US being a positive example of, well, anything are rapidly diminishing.
We should all strive to do what we can, regardless of what others do.
Setting an example and making investments eventually trickles down abroad with technologies being cheaper, with foreign companies being pushed by genuine or PR reasons to make investments on being greener in those countries etc.