Renewable energy generation is in total cost per kWh in Germany and many places already cheaper then burning oil, gas and coal, even before the war. The most expensive is nuclear power, which requires a huge amount of government subsidies per kWh. In turn, heating and mobility can be (to a great extent) electrified.

We don't have a technological problem. There is no rocket science to be solved before we can proceed. We already have working solutions that are more efficient and cleaner.

We have a purely political problem. We don't scale up at the speed necessary to mitigate climate change. We would have to incentivize and subsidize investments just as we did for coal, oil, gas and nuclear. Cut regulations. Build more electrified high-speed railroads. Incentivize efficient heatpumps and energy efficient buildings.

The system build on individual profit maximization, car and oil corporations buying politics to keep the status quo and so on is too inert. At the same time, people despise the taxation necessary to at least incentivize and build up from the government side.

It's all short-sighted greed and special interest and individualism. But it's not a technological problem.

Northern Europe, 2042:

"Mummy, why cant we afford food although you and Daddy work every night and day ? And why are there so many people everywhere? And why are they fighting with guns?"

"Because 20 years ago, people felt too uncomfortable to pay a miniscule fraction of their tax money on the transition to renewable power generation."

After they found a cure for cancer, dementia, Ebola, Parkinsons and aging in general, solved world hunger, climate change, cheap renewable energy, world peace and equal opportunity, they couldn't come up with a new cause that would be worthy as a top priority to throw their resources at, so they decided they could just do the self-adapting mask thing now.

"Others" = prostitution and illegal drugs

Please compare with voting population. Should become even clearer.

Or directly with boomer ages (as soon as they could vote, median age of Senators decreased, while the past two decades they became increasingly geriatric).