The Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen pointed out over a climate change dinner recently that the Chinese symbol for crisis is made of two symbols: danger and opportunity.
You could say this is the symbol of our times. The dangers are apparent, global destruction of value as stocks markets plunge and banks disappear, credit freezes, and a potential deep global recession.
Yet behind this lies the longer danger of climate change. In the corridors of Washington and Brussels some argue that this is no time to restrict greenhouse gas emissions and burden industry further. Danger can all too easily mask opportunity.
When the 1929 stock market crashed there was rush to maintain levels of production with subsidies and import tariffs used to defend jobs. Supply exceeded demand and people hung on to what money they had - just like the western housing market today with people frightened to buy today what may be worth thousands of dollars less in just days or weeks.
It took World War II to fully break the deflationary cycle - hardly a triumph for the economists of the day.
Yet there was a different response to the Asian financial crisis of 1998 as China unleashed a large scale infrastructure project.
Tiny Denmark, with a population around half the size of Los Angeles or New York, has built a world class wind energy system - through promoting domestic wind power that now provides around one-fifth of Denmark's electricity. Danish headquartered Vestas employs over 15,000 people and is the world's largest wind power company.
Germany, far from the sunniest country in the world, has created a world class solar industry through creating a market for solar cells within its own borders. These industries have attracted investment and created jobs on a scale to match any of the 20th century industries.
These were not artificially maintained jobs from propped-up, uncompetitive industries. They were part of creating a new low-carbon economy. This is part of the job of government - to take big decisions on behalf of society and to create a policy framework which allows business to deliver innovation and investment.
So, as we look to the future, how will the world change? President- elect Obama faces substantial challenges. In his words "the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime - two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century."
Will it be subsidies for traditional industries or will there be visionary leadership to build a new low-carbon economy. With the right framework the US can unlock a low-carbon economy at a pace that will surprise us all.
After all this is a country that got a man on the moon with less technology than you have in the cell phone in your pocket.
