DURHAM, N.C. — During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama proposed an economic plan that would create 5 million jobs in environmental industries. These so-called ‘green collar’ jobs do, in fact, present the next frontier for U.S. manufacturing, says a new report from Duke University. Highlighting the direct linkages between low-carbon technologies and U.S. jobs, Duke researchers say U.S. manufacturing is poised to grow in a low-carbon economy. Their report, ‘Manufacturing Climate Solutions,’ provides a detailed look at the manufacturing jobs that already exist and would be created when the U.S. takes action to limit global-warming pollution. A copy of the study is available at http://www.cggc.duke.edu/environment/climatesolutions/. ‘Until now, there was no tangible evidence of what the jobs are, how they are created and what it means for U.S. workers. We are providing that here,’ said Gary Gereffi, a Duke professor of sociology and lead author of the report. ‘We don’t guess where the jobs are; we name them. Our report uses value chains to show that clean technology jobs are also real economy jobs.’ Led by Gereffi, researchers at Duke’s Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness (CGGC) assess five carbon-reducing technologies with potential for future green job creation: […]