The plants are being run because they are cheap and have plentiful supply, not because they are the most desirable form of production.
Merely adding a new tax would be the most regressive solution available, as it disproportionately hurts the poorest- the consequences would take longer but could end up just as severe. Maybe they dont have access to plentiful natural gas, or grid storage for renewables. Maybe they simply dont have an economy healthy or government free enough of corruption to invest in the capital required to transition.
A more reasonable approach would be to set up a program that fronts the necessary investments while letting the locals retain control... effectively a free loan. It would certainly meet the criterion of "gentler", at least, and probably cheaper than fuelling the planes and the bombs as well- those things are crazy expensive.
Germany, Japan and SK are extremely wealthy countries. I am sure they can manage if they really want to.
Germany in particular made the stupid decision of shutting down nuclear plants (Fukushima overreaction) and it is pushing this narrative of being a green energy country… to me it sounds like an easy problem to solve once there is enough political attention.
Nobody, not even Germans think it is a green country, they aren't pushing that narrative. Who told you that lie?
Most likely you fell victim to American newspapers lying to you that Germany is pushing a green narrative. After all they lied about Germany moving back to coal. What happened is that Germany willingly delayed reductions in CO2 emissions. It clearly cared about the nuclear shutdown more than the coal shutdown. However, the articles are always about how emissions went up "because more coal" when that never happened. It's lies upon lies.
Germany is a country that is standing still, neither getting better nor worse and likes it that way. It's not green and nobody pretended that it is green.
Most countries are very far away for the amounts of renewable production where one needs grid scale storage before being able to build more wind turbines and PV.
Merely adding a new tax would be the most regressive solution available, as it disproportionately hurts the poorest- the consequences would take longer but could end up just as severe. Maybe they dont have access to plentiful natural gas, or grid storage for renewables. Maybe they simply dont have an economy healthy or government free enough of corruption to invest in the capital required to transition.
A more reasonable approach would be to set up a program that fronts the necessary investments while letting the locals retain control... effectively a free loan. It would certainly meet the criterion of "gentler", at least, and probably cheaper than fuelling the planes and the bombs as well- those things are crazy expensive.