Capturing the Emerging Market for Climate-Friendly Technologies: Opportunities for Ohio

Increasing certainty that humans are changing the earth’s climate through emissions of greenhouse gases is creating a new market for climate-friendly products and services. As states and nations begin to address climate change by regulating greenhouse gas emissions and encouraging the use of clean energy, demand is growing for technologies such as wind power, biofuels, and cleaner coal power plants. Ohio’s manufacturing and agriculture sectors are already providing some of these solutions, and the state’s economy stands to benefit as a supplier of the technologies and strategies to tackle climate change. This paper briefly describes the factors driving the growing demand for climate-friendly technologies, some of the key existing companies, organizations, and resources in Ohio, and the potential for Ohio to become a leading supplier of climate solutions. These solutions include a new generation of lower-emitting coal technologies, components for wind turbines, and the feedstocks and facilities to produce biofuels. The paper concludes with recommendations for how Ohio can capitalize on these emerging opportunities. These recommendations include focusing and coordinating state funding of climate technology programs, promoting the development of climate-related industry clusters, and exploring export opportunities to states and countries with existing carbon constraints.