The Midwest's long-term economic growth depends on energy policy that reduces carbon emissions, according to a report from The Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

The report, released yesterday, highlights how improving energy efficiency, modernizing infrastructure and developing new energy technology will help the region save jobs in the Midwest, long reliant on carbon-heavy manufacturing and transportation industries.

"This is a way of maintaining and creating jobs by also moving toward carbon alternatives," says Thomas Wright, executive director of studies at the Council. "It's not going to be easy, but it has to be done because otherwise the region's economy will be weaker in the long run."

The task force for the report included management consultants, university presidents, corporate executives, environmental and labor advocates, and a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

They make clear that addressing the region's carbon emissions will not be cheap. In one estimate, the report cites how costs of $10 billion a year would make the region only half as efficient as it could be — but that those expenses could bring double or even quadruple the amount in savings.

In Chicago, for example, the task force recommended that federal officials provide more funding to upgrade regional rail systems. The U.S. government set aside $9.3 billion for high-speed rail and Amtrak in this year's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The task force also praised the Chicago Climate Action Plan, which aims for a 25 percent reduction in 1990 greenhouse-gas emission levels by 2020, and it pointed to the design and construction of Exelon Corp.'s downtown Chicago headquarters as a model of environmentally friendly renovation.

"Chicago's already taken the lead on some of these things," Wright says.

In other areas, Chicago could wane along with the region.

Researchers compared 15 universities in the Great Lakes area — including Northwestern and the University of Chicago — and found that, combined, they produced fewer academic patents, doctorates and postdoctoral degrees than just the top five patent-generating universities in the country.

That could hurt the Midwest as it competes with other regions to attract federal grants for energy-related research and development, according to the report.