While we talk about government action, it's important to highlight that there are private actors in the market who are actually trying to achieve goals on their own.
There's an organization called the
Science Based Targets initiative, where companies will publicly commit to vetted emissions targets and a specified timeline, with the worst-case goal being targets that are aligned with the 1.5C warming level of emissions.
My own company just announced last week that they're targeting 100% renewable energy by 2030, and to be net-zero in all of our scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 2032.
As I've (I think?) said before, part of it is the company trying to do a good thing, but another part of it is that our customers demanding that we reduce our emissions. Because in the emissions game, our emissions "flow down" and must be counted as theirs, so they need us to improve to hit their own targets.
As is probably the usual case, we'll see private business start to make meaningful strides here on their own, and then when the time is right,
the gov't will set a "standard" and claim victory like it was all Washington's idea in the first place. Effing pikers.