In 1952, due to a combination of weird weather and coal emissions, a smog in London lasting four days killed at least 4,000 people over its duration and possibly as many as 12,000 people over the next few months.
This lead to the phasing out of domestic coal in cities, regulation on power plant flue gas, and so forth, over the following decade. People, and the energy industry, kicked and screamed, but the government (at the time controlled by noted lefties the Conservative party) did it anyway. There were two more incidents in 1957 and 1962 killing 750-1000 people each, but that was about the end of it.
Maybe in a parallel universe the libertarian government of the UK did nothing, and people reduced their emissions on the same timeline anyway. But I think it's somewhat more likely that in that parallel universe people are still dying horribly in their thousands every time the dangerous weather conditions (cold, no wind) repeat. People are notoriously bad at externalities.
This lead to the phasing out of domestic coal in cities, regulation on power plant flue gas, and so forth, over the following decade. People, and the energy industry, kicked and screamed, but the government (at the time controlled by noted lefties the Conservative party) did it anyway. There were two more incidents in 1957 and 1962 killing 750-1000 people each, but that was about the end of it.
Maybe in a parallel universe the libertarian government of the UK did nothing, and people reduced their emissions on the same timeline anyway. But I think it's somewhat more likely that in that parallel universe people are still dying horribly in their thousands every time the dangerous weather conditions (cold, no wind) repeat. People are notoriously bad at externalities.