Western efforts matter because they allow less wealthy nations to follow along a proven path towards sustainability.

Nnobody is going to follow a hypocrite, and no one in east asia is gonna cut back on consumption/growth/lifestyle if rich westerners can't even pretend to put in some token effort for the same cause.

Solr and wind power is arguably a huge success story (looking at china specifically) because it was arguably enabled and triggered by western efforts in research, development and commercialization.

The technology will get cheaper as we start to use it. Solar is getting ridiculously cheap but China is leading the way on that