Here's the thing - it is not governments that are polluting, it...

Here's the thing - it is not governments that are polluting, it is companies. I do remember a number of years ago a government proposal for a carbon tax. That was shot down by the electorate in an election. Furthermore, most, if not all, modern western economies have been exporting their heavily polluting industries to places like China, India, Indonesia, south America, Mexico, etc, etc. for the past 30 years. It is only now that we have had COVID and supply chain disruptions and China exerting market power over western economies that it is no longer politically palatable for industries to be off-shore. Thus, the reindustrialisation on-shoring movement. This is now raising more concerns around pollution bucause it is now in my back yard.

Your solution of taxing the hell our of non-renewable might be fine, but who does this impact the most? The wealthy? The middle class? The poor? I don't think it is the wealthy.

Going by your logic then we should also tax other things as well. What about the solar panels atop of households generating electricity all over the world (they are really hard to recycle), or the hard to dispose of components of an electric vehicle (the battery pack). What about all the old and disused wind generating units (particularly the fins), who should pay for their disposal? We the consumer?

Maybe, governments should come up with better laws to regulate industry and then let industry sort it out from there and not just rely upon the blunt cudgel of reverting to "taxing the hell out of people", which mainly hurts the poor and middle class.