It is said that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. That may or may not be true but what is undoubtedly true is that the current crop of world leaders are fiddling around, while the world is on a potentially catastrophic pace of heating.
Some countries have done somewhat more than others, however as a group they are failing.
Were the political structures and will available it would be extremely easy to stop and reverse global warming. All that would be needed would be a tax on all fossil fuels at a rate commensurate with the cost of removing the carbon dumped in the atmosphere. For example as one liter of gasoline releases .0023 tonnes of co2 into the atmosphere, a tax on the liter at a rate sufficient to remove .0023 tonnes of co2 from the atmosphere would, providing the money was actually used to remove the co2, lead to zero net emissions and a stable situation. In practice more factors could be taken into account as long the realistic target was zero net emissions.
While this would lead to some short term rise in energy costs, in the long term it would lead to massive savings as the costs of climate change will be far greater. Furthermore the net effect would be a rapid switch over to renewable energy sources of which there is no shortage. There is plenty of space in the worlds deserts for capturing solar energy etc.
All that is needed is political leadership which will take a long term and sustainable view. Unfortunately that is currently lacking and most of the worlds current leaders will probably be recorded along with Nero in historical lists of the worlds most incompetent and inept leaders.
That being said, it is undoubtedly true that leaders are constrained to a considerable degree by the expectations of their electorate or base or political structures at home. If the world is to wake from its current lethargy, changes will undoubtedly be needed to political structures.
External Links:
ICBE> CarbonDatabase> tCO2 in Gaseous Volume and Quantity of Fuel Type