Renewable energy isn't so much a solution to climate change as it is a way to keep the lights on after we've addressed climate change.

Addressing climate change is easy - just leave coal oil and gas in the ground. The part that needs more thought is how to best meet everyone's needs w/o fossil fuels.

Imagine if the first COP more than 25 years had framed it this way. Countries asked to commit to a gradual ramp down of fossil fuel extraction. With that certainty, policy and technology and culture free to innovate to meet people's needs.

It is a major ongoing victory for fossil fuel interests that instead we act as though we can't get off fossil fuels until we've built something to allow the same way of living without them.

A self-unfullfilling prophesy: you see, people, and governments, the way you address climate change is by building an alternative energy system, except why would you, since you have this fossil fuel based one?

Despite all these odds renewable energy is now thriving and booming. Maybe now, we'll tease the two threads apart. The climate solution is to stop extracting fossil fuels. New technologies are how we move forward together.