Right John, I would prefer to live in an energy rich world.
The problem with the transistion is that the scheme I work on uses up a rather large amount of LNG, in fact, several ship loads a week.
The EROEI is really good, couple of months, but the input of LNG to get off fossil fuels and go to cheaper solar power from space is rather large.
The LNG is used to make hydrogen which fuels Skylon rocket planes hauling parts to LEO. Natural gas (or fuel oil) powers a microwave transmitter that powers the LEO to GEO run, takes about 4 weeks to lift 15,000 ton cargo stacks.
*If,* and thats a big if, the total cost to GEO can be brought down to $200/kg or less, and the mass of the power plant in space is no more than 6.5 kg/kW, then solar power from space will come in less expensive than electric power from coal.
Reasonable growth rates driven by huge profits can get the carbon growth zero by the early 2030s if this works out.