 Transitioning to clean energy from fossil fuels won’t be simple, and it will take several years, if not decades. The main mechanism is likely to be a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The “cap” is a ceiling on the total emissions allowed per year. Major emitters—such as coal plants, oil refiners, and natural gas producers—will purchase a designated number of emissions permits. Emitters may “trade” in permits if they need more than their share or find they can do with less. Over time, the cap is lowered and emitters are forced to conserve energy and transition to clean alternatives—alternatives that will largely depend on a vibrant manufacturing sector, able to produce the major components and subcomponents of new technologies in demand.
 The challenge of climate change will either move the world forward toward a more sustainable future, or drive a wedge between rich and poor and usher in generations of troubled global relations. The emissions legacy of the past, and the unavoidable emissions of the coming years, make it inevitable that climate change will worsen. To avoid the worst outcomes, adaptation—or adjustments that moderate harms—is critically important.
 “As leaders of the world’s major economies,” noted the G-20 communiqué from Pittsburgh, “we are working for a resilient, sustainable, and green recovery. We underscore anew our resolve to take strong action to address the threat of dangerous climate change.”
Climate change, like economic recovery, is another major problem nations must face together. The way forward on climate change is fairly clear, but the magnitude of this challenge is far greater than any other issue on the horizon. At this point, the scientific evidence of climate change is unequivocal. If we don’t take strong enough action on climate change, the consequences could be catastrophic for everyone.
U.S. manufacturers remain among the most productive in the world. However, much of the competitiveness of U.S. firms hinges on policies beyond their control, chiefly health care policy and the value of the dollar relative to foreign currencies. Reform in both these areas is crucial not only to domestic manufacturers but to the viability of the U.S. economy as a whole.
 Negotiations taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark in December 2009 will bring together countries from around the world. The Copenhagen conference will focus on formulating a successor to the current treaty on climate change, the Kyoto Protocol. Negotiated in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol went into full force in 2005. It set binding limits on CO2 emissions for some countries; 35 industrialized nations agreed to cut their emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The Kyoto commitment period ends in 2012. What will a post-Kyoto global agreement on climate change look like? This is what the Copenhagen negotiations are supposed to answer, or begin to answer, since the process of finalizing an agreement will culminate in 2012.
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 The largest solar-powered building on a college campus in the United States is at Oberlin in Ohio. It is not surprising to find buildings powered by solar energy on college campuses. Academic institutions are leaders in the research and development of clean-energy technologies. The components used to build the solar system at Oberlin had to be imported from Germany and Japan, because the United States lacked the capacity to produce the parts at home.
 Rosebud and other Native American reservations in the northern Great Plains have some of the best wind power resources in the country. It’s not just how often the wind blows, or the speeds it reaches—it’s the density of the wind and the endless ridgelines that stretch across reservation lands that make this part of the country ideal for converting wind into electricity. Government studies estimate that the two dozen reservations in the northern Great Plains have sufficient wind resources to produce electricity to power half the United States.
 Family nutrition is directly affected by women’s ability to farm. Women farmers grow more than half of all the food in developing countries, and up to 80 percent in parts of Africa, generally in the form of small-scale crops for household consumption. Climate change has already begun to affect agricultural production and, consequently, women’s livelihoods and their ability to support their families’ nutritional needs. Extension efforts need to reach women, who often do not have access to information that would help them make better decisions about how to adapt to climate change.
 If it were ever really true that what’s good for the environment is bad for business and vice versa, the tradeoff has swiftly become an anachronism, largely because of the pressing need to address climate change. Climate change will be a huge challenge—and a tremendous economic opportunity. It’s possible to battle climate change and create jobs at the same time.
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