Well, in the Netherlands we are building lots of windmillss, and installing solar panels. For us, this is all the more urgent since we have to reduce and ultimately terminate natural gas extraction because it induces earthquakes in my region. Nobody is claiming this is easy, but rising sea levels are not an appealing prospect. None of this is done out of ignorance: our conservative minister responsible for climate policy is a university trained engineer. The two most prominent former politicians who have been asked to coordinate the national discussion are a former leader of the conservative party who is a former corporate lawyer and the former leader of our socialist party who is a former research scientist in nuclear physics. In short, there is a wide ranging consensus that this needs to be done.
The other half of the equation is to reduce energy consumption. Building codes are being adapted to mandate better insulation. The EU has banned halogen lights for domestic lighting, and that has given a tremendous boost to the development of led lights in all the different flavours and sizes to fit into existing lamps. Our new Miele dryer has a far more efficient heat pump instead of the traditional heating element, and our new washing machine and dishwasher are similarly far more efficient than the old ones. All these developements have been stimulated by regulation, sometimes voluntary, and sometimes imposed by law, and the market forces of scarcity and tax incentives. And indeed that is precisely what every economics textbook tells you that has to be done to deal with externalities.
