Job One for a CEO: Exploit the opportunities and shift the costs to someone else

WSJ has summarized its ECO:nomics conference with multiple postings on its web site. On page one, ECO:nomics: Creating Environmental Capital, hits you with the hard core view.

The push to curb global-warming emissions is starting to redraw the industrial landscape, and in doing so it has already begun to create new winners and losers. Job One for a CEO: Exploit the opportunities and shift the costs to someone else.

Some players -- like wind-turbine makers and venture capitalists -- stand to gain from the drive to reduce fossil-fuel use. Some -- like auto makers and oil producers -- stand to pay. All face a dilemma: The rules of the green game have yet to be written, but to remain competitive, companies must bet big today on how the rules will shake out.

These bets, and the battle over the coming rules, were a recurring topic of discussion at ECO:nomics, The Wall Street Journal's first annual conference on the business of the environment. In this report, we offer some of the highlights of that discussion.

You'll read, for instance, why executives from major multinationals are calling on the U.S. government to impose a cap on greenhouse-gas emissions. As Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric Co.'s CEO, explained, because regulation is coming, "I'd just as soon have a seat at that table than have it pushed down my throat."

And spins this as the beginning.

Winners and losers. Opportunities and risks. The fault lines in this new-energy landscape are only just emerging.

Here are links to more content.

THE JOURNAL REPORT

• Green thinking is at the core of thousands of new communities. Here's a look at some of the approaches. Video | Interactive Map

• Governments and companies are on a quest to turn trash into power.

• How to safely dispose of products that are potentially harmful to the environment is a growing concern. Podcast

• Global Warming: Who said what -- and when

• The environmental movement almost killed Hayfork, Calif. Now, it's the town's main hope.

• Why is a U.S. ambassador helping foreign companies raise money?

• See the complete Environment report.