Rich multinational consulting firms and their solutions of "just lay off people bro" coupled with millions of dollars of consulting fees. Oh no, what a terrible loss to society!
I think you're missing the context. China has shown that BEVs can be cost-competitive with ICE vehicles. This isn't some far out claim, it's the reality today. China has also been the primary driver behind the cost-competitiveness of solar, and produces the vast majority of the world's solar panels. The developed world is lagging behind not because the technology isn't there, but because they're unwilling to invest in it.
Saudi Arabia shouldn't have bothered. Nobody except China is even trying to make a cost-competitive EV (in fact, every other country is trying to block the import of those cost-competitive EVs). Poorer countries are stuck with ICE because the "developed world" refuses to develop cheaper clean alternatives that poorer people can actually use. Instead, we get Rivians and Lucids and Teslas supporter by billions of dollars in incentives and subsidies and no reason to meaningfully drive costs down. All for the sake of profit at the cost of progress.
Maybe, just maybe, Brazil shouldn't keep chopping down rainforest to extract iron/oil and grow soybean/chicken/cow? Brazil needs to rapidly industrialized their economy because resource exploitation is clearly unsustainable.
Recently, Chinese companies have started to rapidly expand their Brazilian manufacturing footprint, but it's not enough.
Do you understand how mandatory military service works? Around the world, it's almost entirely training unless people volunteer to enter combat. It's incredibly unpleasant to avoid mandatory military service in countries that require it (South Korea, Singapore, Russia, etc.) but it's by no means impossible.
China is inching towards pulling off a soft landing of their real estate sector. This rapid contraction of the Chinese construction industry is extremely good for the environment as it'll reduce the emissions from GHG-intensive cement and steel production... I would not be surprised if all the reports of China peaking emissions/coal come true.
Maybe it's just me, but I'm not seeing how any of the people listed "couldn't avoid mobilization." Militaries around the world hire from the poor and desperate, but the story makes no indication that people are forced into service.
Rich multinational consulting firms and their solutions of "just lay off people bro" coupled with millions of dollars of consulting fees. Oh no, what a terrible loss to society!