The realistic and responsible environmental strategy needs to look like this:
1. Get a study to evaluate Earth's natural emissions and emission absorption capability. It's not like humans are the only thing hurting the environment. Wildfires? Mudslides? Volcano eruptions? All of these damage the environment and/or release pollutants. BUT, Earth can also absorb millions and millions of tons of pollutant emissions annually. So, we need to figure out what its absolute emissions absorption cap is, because knowing that will tell us how many tons of emissions humans can give off without stressing the environment.
2. Once we've figured out how many tons of pollutants humans can emit annually without exceeding Earth's absorption capacity, then the world needs to distribute those emissions based off need. G20 would be my pick for deciding who gets what emission caps, but the U.N could be a good pick as well. Caps need to be assigned off need, not split equally. A nation's cap could be artificially increased if they pledge to artificially filter emissions with technology like scrubbers.
3. Having done that, then each country could spend their cap however they wish. We in the U.S could devote say, 40% (arbitrary value) of it to automotive emissions. That way we can keep our gasoline vehicles and the massive economy and infrastructure devoted to them in place, and it could be adjusted as people decide to take up electric or not.
This way you keep the most people happy without hurting Earth or the economy of a given nation.
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