Climate change will affect the crops we raise, the storms we get, the kinds of forests and wildlife we see, the amount and kind of energy we use and how we develop our land. Because Pennsylvania contributes to the problem in a major way, we must take responsibility for finding solutions.

Brian J. Hill is president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (bhill@pecpa.org). The climate change road map is available at www.pecpa.org.

Pennsylvania generates 1 percent of the world's greenhouse gases -- 305 million metric tons in 2000. Unless we take action now, our emissions will rise to 383 million metric tons by 2025. That puts our state alongside the top 25 emitting nations in the world.

Given our contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and inaction on the federal level, Pennsylvania must develop a climate change policy that is advantageous for our state and provides guidance to a recalcitrant federal government. As of last week, we now have a guide for reducing our state's carbon footprint: The Pennsylvania Climate Change Road Map.

Two years ago the Pennsylvania Environmental Council convened a group representing business, farm, energy-generation and environmental interests to help us create this road map for our state. There was no doubt within the group that the scientific debate about the human impacts on climate change is over, and a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists released last October only reinforced concerns about the potential effects on Pennsylvania.

The road map shows solutions and opportunities for Pennsylvania that can make the state a national leader in addressing climate change. First, it sets a goal for Pennsylvania of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from 2000 levels by 25 percent by 2025. This means we need to either reduce emissions or offset our carbon contributions to drive down our greenhouse gas contribution to 230 million metric tons annually.

Second, we recommend capping greenhouse gas emissions and joining a nationwide system that allows the trading of credits to promote least-cost solutions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A national program would be most advantageous for Pennsylvania business and industry. Many businesses have facilities here and in other states, and they should be able to seek the lowest-cost solution among those facilities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Third, the road map makes 38 specific recommendations to reduce greenhouse emissions in various sectors: energy supply; transportation, residential, commercial and industrial buildings; agriculture; forestry; land use and more.

The recommendations include common sense steps like increasing the use of renewable sources of energy, increasing energy efficiency in transportation and construction and taking advantage of Pennsylvania's natural assets to offset greenhouse emissions by increasing reforestation, encouraging agriculture and using our native geology to sequester carbon dioxide emitted by coal-fired power plants and other sources.

In addition, the road map presents energy efficiency recommendations that put energy use more directly in the hands of consumers -- giving people and businesses better control over how they can manage their use and reduce their costs.

Thomas Edison once noted that "opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Clearly, addressing climate change will require hard work, but it also presents opportunities.

Many of the recommendations in the climate road map present economic opportunities for Pennsylvania and our citizens because they would create new industries and businesses. The wind turbine company Gamesa's new manufacturing facility near Ebensburg, GE Transportation's locomotive manufacturing in Erie and PPG's Solarban 70XL Glass are but three examples of companies and products in Western Pennsylvania that are anticipating and responding to a changing market place that requires environmentally sound products which can help mitigate climate change.

The General Assembly is now considering a bipartisan proposal by Sen. Ted Erickson, R-Delaware, and Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware, that would create a Climate Change Action Plan for Pennsylvania. Gov. Ed Rendell will soon present his own proposals to address climate change, some of which already are included in the proposed Energy Independence Plan he presented in February.

In addition, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and our related Center for Climate Strategies is helping the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources develop a carbon management plan that identifies how the state can best use its terrestrial and geologic resources to sequester carbon so that it no longer rises into the atmosphere.

We hope the General Assembly and the governor will use the recommendations of the Climate Change Road Map for Pennsylvania as the foundation for a climate change strategy that not only addresses this critical problem, but one that unlocks its economic opportunities as well.