Mitigation has always been the preferable solution because it doesn't suffer from the public goods problem. In other words, the people that incur the costs of m

Mitigation has always been the preferable solution because it doesn't suffer from the public goods problem. In other words, the people that incur the costs of mitigation directly enjoy the benefits it provides (such as building a sea wall). Prevention is just one giant worldwide geo-engineering problem with no mechanism to ensure long term global coordination. More to your comment, I think you'll find that the wealthiest nations are the nations that are doing the most to aggressively reduce pollution while the poorest ones are emitting the most on a GDP basis. This effect is called the Kuznets Curve.