Perhaps this is why people don’t want to spend money on fighting climate change. https://money.cnn.com/2017/01/12/pf/americans-lack-of-savings/index.html
This is about using the law to change the way corporate actors carry out business.
VW should have been bankrupted by their antics.
Ultimately the best way of punishing VW is to take some roads away. Turn them into bicycle lanes. All car companies are backed by their national governments, so the corruption will never end. Nobody wants the innocent factory workers to loose their jobs.