I think your analysis is on point except for the last sentence. We have the system that we have. In said system, corporations behave as close to the "paperclip

I think your analysis is on point except for the last sentence. We have the system that we have. In said system, corporations behave as close to the "paperclip maximiser" AI as possible, replacing "paperclip" with "share value". Short of changing the system for a better one (which I would argue is not feasible, but that's another topic), all we can do is change the conditions under which share value will increase, such that a corporation gets greater share value for being less bad for the environment. That's where some problems arise, as too many people advocate for de facto individual responsibility of consumers, in the spirit of "voting with your wallet", as if it were even possible to convince a big enough proportion of consumers to have any noticeable effect on profits, let alone share value, and thus on the actions of the paperclip maximisers. That is as pointless as a solution as it would be to advocate for individual responsibility of investors to "vote with their portfolio" and invest more in corporations that do follow through with their climate pledges. Consumers and individual investors are not as soulless as corporations, but they still have their own economic interests to fulfil. The only way to get the paperclip maximisers to change their behaviour is to impose strong internalising costs such as carbon taxation and well calibrated punitive tariffs, and that has to be done at the level of Government(s), namely four: the USA, the EU, the PRC, and India. Make it so that a business that does not follow the rules simply cannot operate in these economies. Make it so that owning stocks in a business that does not follow the rules is taxed to a prohibitive amount. Make it so that a business that follows the rules but does not optimise for climate neutrality is blown out of the market because their prices are too damn high compared to the ones that do. Ban trade from any nation that does not impose similar draconian measures. Now we're talking. And it doesn't matter that it's way too late now. Let's do it anyway.