I tend to categorize this as a combination of three problems: 1. We don't have a single defining policy platform for our society. If the CCP puts out a detai

I tend to categorize this as a combination of three problems: 1. We don't have a single defining policy platform for our society. If the CCP puts out a detailed timeline to a zero-carbon China, they have all the economic and political levers they need to pull in one place. No person or group in the US has any comparable authority. 2. Because of this, western countries tend to be limited to piecemeal solutions that can fit into smaller scale budgets and timelines. We can sell one power plant at a time, rather than a clearly strategized 50 year rundown to zero emissions. That means a lot of either-or decisions (Solar or traditional nuclear or Thorium, not funding all three) and a lot of people who are fundamentally on the same side get caught in infighting and bikeshedding trying to compete for limited opportunities. 3. You're often dealing with a problem where the solution is "yeet the entrenched counterinterest." The counter-interest group in 3) really just has to prevent you from doing anything to win, so it tends to encourage 2) as a cheap way to keep the opposition fractured.