Wouldn't that be great, we wouldn't have to feel bad about destroying the planet anymore :) I don't think it's true though. Do you have any evidence that consumer choice does not have any impact on carbon emissions? In other areas it definitely does [1]
> if you don't buy cheap coal energy, someone will
No, not if everyone starts asking for clean energy instead. There isn't an infinite number of people, at some point demand for clean energy will make it unattractive to offer dirty energy.
Generally, globally sub-optimal many-agent game-theoretic equilibria can't be escaped by individual agents shooting themselves in the foot. There is a reason why it is an equilibrium in the first place. If there a traffic jam every day that adds 30 min to everyone's drive, you can't solve it by asking some people to voluntarily take the alternate path that adds 1 hour to their drive.
The correct way to move from the sub-optimal equilibrium to a better one is via global action i.e. changing the rules of the game. In the real world that means state level actions as GP talks about.
> if you don't buy cheap coal energy, someone will
No, not if everyone starts asking for clean energy instead. There isn't an infinite number of people, at some point demand for clean energy will make it unattractive to offer dirty energy.
[1] https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2020/12/16/buying-stuff-dr...