An important concept to grasp is that while the planet is "warming" it is not getting hotter. What does that mean? It means that most of warming is happening in the colder parts of the planet, and we are not recording "hotter temperatures" but rather fewer cold ones. As such, to some extent global warming has benefited mankind by extending growing seasons in those parts of the world with relatively short ones, the result has been a dramatic increase in crop yields.
Meanwhile, almost none of the global climate models are based integrated with population models, which show that populations worldwide are expected to be declining by the end of century on every continent except Africa and that population implosion may become the more serious issue facing humans rather the climate change.
The bigger issue is not that we are burning to many fossil fuels, but rather over time fossil fuels will become increasingly expensive. As standards of living are highly correlated to the relative cost of energy, it is important for mankind to focus on developing technologies that produce energy at lower cost than we can with fossil fuels.
The two most likely sources of those alternative energy sources are nuclear (using the new technology of the last 20 years) and solar/wind. Now to the extent we invest in those technologies, we won't need to coerce people to abandon fossil fuels... any more than we needed to coerce people to abandon the horse and buggy when cars came around.
Now with respect to the "elite" or "wealthy", it should be noted that most of today's billionaires became billionaires by inventing products and services that satisfied consumers. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Tesla are all companies founded by people who became billionaires.
What our planet needs in the next generation of "billionaires" to invest "green energy" that costs less than fossil fuels, a way to recycle garbage to a degree never imagined and at a profit, a way to convert unlimited amounts of water to drinking water, etc. We need hundreds of new billionaires, who get that way by solving human problems in creative and innovative ways.
