Press Release: President Bill Clinton Opens Sixth Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative
Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic of Finland, Melinda French Gates, Robert McDonald, and Eric Schmidt Discuss Global Challenges with President Clinton in Opening Plenary
Nearly 300 Commitments Expected To Be Made At 2010 Annual Meeting, More Than Ever Before; President Clinton Announces New Commitments Focused on Disaster Relief and Long Term Recovery in Haiti, Pakistan, and the Gulf Coast
New York, NY — President Bill Clinton opened the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) this morning at an opening plenary session that framed the discussions that will take place in the coming days and outlined opportunities for CGI members to take action to improve the lives of people around the world.
President Clinton announced that 67 current and former heads of state, more than 600 business leaders, and more than 500 leaders from NGOs and philanthropic organizations are attending CGI’s sixth Annual Meeting. Over the course of the week, these CGI members will make new connections, share insights and ideas, and forge partnerships that will strengthen their work for years to come.
“CGI members come from 90 different countries, speak many languages, work in all sectors, and approach problems in unique ways,” President Clinton said. “But together, their desire and capacity to build a better world for our children and grandchildren has resulted in 1,946 commitments, valued at $63 billion dollars, which have already improved nearly 300 million lives.”
At the opening plenary session, President Clinton and four panelists discussed how corporations, governments, non-profits, foundations, and other stakeholders can collaborate to empower the poor, improve access to education and health care, develop alternative sources of energy, and create a cleaner environment. Tarja Halonen, president of the Republic of Finland, participated in the panel along with Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Robert McDonald, president, chairman, and CEO of Procter & Gamble, and Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Google.
President Clinton also announced 17 new Commitments to Action, most focused on providing immediate relief and long-term solutions to disaster-affected areas in Haiti, the Gulf Coast, and Pakistan. Since the devastating earthquake struck Haiti in January, CGI members have made commitments worth $224 million to help the country build back better. Most of the commitments announced today by President Clinton were developed through CGI’s Action Network focused on Haiti. Facilitated by Denis O’Brien, chairman of the Digicel Group, the Action Network has been meeting regularly to help members meet new partners and coordinate their work. Many of these commitment-makers were already working in Haiti before the earthquake, and are now in the process of coordinating with the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission.
President Clinton also announced new commitments on waste, many of which were developed through CGI’s Rethinking Waste Action Network.
Information about all the commitments announced at the opening plenary session is below.
At 1:30 p.m. today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will make remarks during a plenary session on Empowering Girls and Women. The session will be moderated by Katie Couric and will feature Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of the Republic of Liberia, Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of the Coca-Cola Company. The plenary session will be followed by three breakout sessions, also on the topic of Empowering Girls and Women.
At 3 p.m. today, President Clinton will moderate a special session on Peace and Beyond in the Middle East, which will feature HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Salam Fayyad, prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority, and Shimon Peres, president of Israel. The panelists will address the challenges facing the region, and discuss tangible ways that CGI members and others could lay the foundation for sustainable peace and economic prosperity.
These sessions — and all open-press sessions — can be viewed live or recorded at live.clintonglobalinitiative.org. For a complete agenda, please visit clintonglobalinitiative.org/schedule. Photos will be available approximately two hours after each session on our Flickr page. Please visit press.clintonglobalinitiative.org for the link.
CGI will be soliciting questions from the Twitter audience for plenary sessions and selected breakout sessions. Follow the Clinton Foundation’s tweets about CGI at: ?twitter.com/ClintonTweet. The official hash-tag for the 2010 CGI Annual Meeting is #cgi2010.
CGI will be posting daily video highlights on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/cgivideos. Follow President Clinton’s updates on his facebook page at facebook.com/billclinton.
The following commitments were announced at the opening plenary session:
ACS Energy Advisors LLC
Delivering Water to Pakistan
ACS Energy Advisors, with WorldWater & Solar Technologies, will donate solar-powered purification machines — which also serve as energy efficient generators — to provide clean drinking water in the Punjab and Khyber regions of Pakistan. This four-year project will also establish long-term water and energy infrastructure.
Cason Family Foundation
Innovative Sustainability in the Informal Waste Sector
The Cason Family Foundation (CFF) will collaborate with multinational corporate partners and program providers to develop a scalable and replicable pilot program for the informal waste sector using the industry’s best practices. CFF will also launch an open source website where information, project successes, and lessons learned will be shared with those in the informal waste management sector.
Concern Worldwide US
Concern Worldwide US — Response to Floods in Pakistan
Concern Worldwide, working with local NGO partners, has begun to address the emergency needs of 588,000 of the most vulnerable people in Pakistan’s KPK, Balochistan, Punjab, and Sind provinces. Concern will provide assistance including food, aid for farmers, and funding for infrastructure.
Covanta Holding Corporation
Plastic Recovery Partnership to Clean Up Our Ocean
Beginning in late 2010, Project Kaisei and Covanta Energy commit to remove and remediate plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean, stem future plastic waste flows from entering oceans, and introduce new waste-to-fuel technology which will offer an innovative revenue stream for municipalities around the world. This commitment is designed to develop a beneficial secondary market for properly processed waste, particularly plastic waste.
EarthEcho International
STREAM: Youth Citizen Journalism in the Gulf Coast
EarthEcho International will empower youth in the Gulf states and elsewhere through a new citizen journalism initiative. The initiative will provide 1,000 young people, aged 11-18, with the training and resources needed to cover local environmental issues. Young journalists will create and maintain a multi-media news website that provides an outlet for their stories and an informational resource for others.
EarthSpark International
Delivering Clean Energy to Haiti
Earthspark International will build five new clean energy stores in Haiti to follow their first, which opened in March 2010. Earthspark will also develop two micro-grids by June 2011, which will allow Haitians to access more, cleaner electricity at a competitive price. Haitian business partners will own, operate, and service these micro-grids, while EarthSpark will work with the community to develop a load-serving entity responsible for customer service and bill collection.
Enhancement of Integrated Services and Waste Recycling Co. (EISWRC) and the Association for the Protection of Environment (APE)
Zero Waste with No Landfill
Together, the Enhancement of Integrated Services and Waste Recycling Co. (EISWRC) and the Association for the Protection of Environment (APE) will address the garbage problem in Egypt with solid waste recycling strategies. The project will focus on using source separation, proper collection, and reuse or resale, with the goal of total recycling and no landfills.
Google Crisis Response
Google will give $1 million to flood relief efforts and work to develop new technologies to aid flood victims. Google will enhance and deploy tools, including People Finder, to help people give and receive updates on friends and loved ones.
Green Power Partnership
Green Power Partnership
Since food processing waste is a major source of water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, Green Power Partnership commits to install 50 anaerobic fixed film bioreactors over three years to process food waste in Africa. This is expected to improve the health of 300 million people, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 metric tons of CO2 per year, create 50MW of cheap green power, and provide environmentally safe organic fertilizer to five million low-income farmers.
Haiti Adolescent Girls Network
Empowering Adolescent Girls in Haiti
AmeriCares Foundation and partner organizations, which make up the Haiti Adolescent Girls Network, commit to create safe spaces that offer social, health, and financial literacy services for vulnerable adolescent girls. Working with 80 Haitian peer mentors, the initiative will break the cycle of poverty for 1,000 girls aged 10–19, and help NGOs establish girl-centered programming.
ISPAN
National Heritage Education for Haitian Youth
ISPAN, with the help of the World Heritage Center and the TipaTipa Foundation, will produce teaching materials for a five-year curriculum on Haiti’s rich national heritage. Targeting children aged six to 12 and educators to be trained in this curriculum, ISPAN hopes for Haitian children to learn about, cherish, and act to preserve their natural, cultural, and historical heritage—and be inspired to preserve their Haitian identity.
Kashf Foundation
Reconstruction Fund for Flood Affectees in Pakistan
The Kashf Foundation commits to establish a fund for the rehabilitation of 10 flood-affected communities in Pakistan. This initiative aims to improve livelihoods, especially those of women, through cash grants and microfinance services, and will also support the construction of clean water infrastructure and schools.
NRG Energy
The Sun Lights the Way: Brightening Boucan Carr
NRG Energy commits to invest $1 million in the installation of solar panels to power water pumps, schools, and street lighting in the municipality of Boucan Carré. The Solar Electric Light Fund and NRG will identify ways that solar energy can be harnessed to provide affordable, reliable, and clean electricity.
Ocean Conservancy
Responding to the Gulf Disaster: Restoration and Reform
The Ocean Conservancy commits to establish a Gulf Restoration Center in Louisiana, involving the Conservancy’s network of volunteers in a citizen-led plan for coastal cleanup and long-term regional recovery. The organization will also work with scientists to assess damage to the Gulf, and engage local and national stakeholders to insure that recovery activities are effective.
Project Kaisei
Introduction of the Plastic Disclosure Project
Project Kaisei commits to the launch of the “Plastic Disclosure Project,” modeled after the globally successful Carbon Disclosure Project, and driven by the world’s investment community. The project will inspire changes in design, new materials, and recycling by determining the “plastic footprint” of manufacturers, suppliers and consumers.
Stree Mukti Sanghatana
Environmental Entrepreneurship & Women Waste Pickers
Stree Mukti Sanghatana (SMS) commits to provide training in environmental entrepreneurship for urban poor women rag pickers (waste pickers) in Mumbai and neighboring cities in India. This will strengthen existing initiatives for dry waste sorting, composting, bio-methanation, decreasing residential waste, and negotiating with business houses, citizens groups, and local self governments to use bio-gas as an alternate fuel.
What: 2010 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative www.clintonglobalinitiative.org
Where: Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers
811 7th Avenue at 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
When: September 20 – 23, 2010
APPLYING FOR CREDENTIALS: ALL PRESS MUST APPLY FOR CREDENTIALS AND MUST BE APPROVED BY THE CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE IN ORDER TO ATTEND THE ANNUAL MEETING. The deadline to apply for credentials is 5 p.m. on Friday, September 17. Journalists may apply for credentials on-site, but due to space limitations, pre-registered press will be given priority consideration. You must submit a photo when applying for a credential online.
To apply for press credentials, please fill out the online form at http://bit.ly/pressreg.
We will notify you when a decision has been made in regards to your application. For questions about press registration, please contact Kathryn Mahoney at kathryn.mahoney@clintonglobalinitiative.org.
CREDENTIAL PICK-UP: If you receive confirmation from CGI that you are registered, you are encouraged to pick up your credential Monday, September 20 from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Credential pick-up will also be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Tuesday, September 21 through Thursday, September 23. To pick up your credential, you MUST bring a valid government-issued ID. If applying on-site, please bring a press ID as well. If you have any questions about identification or pick-up, please contact Kathryn Mahoney at kathryn.mahoney@clintonglobalinitiative.org.
LOCATION: Unless otherwise noted, all events will take place at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers located at 811 7th Avenue. Press entrance and registration is on 52nd Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in the Executive Conference Center at the Sheraton.
ACCESS: Plenary, breakout, keynote, and special sessions will be open press, subject to change and to space limitations. Online signup for sessions will be available one day in advance, at http://press.clintonglobalinitiative.org.
CGI PRESS CENTER & MEDIA WORKSPACE: The Press Center is located in the Executive Conference Center, located on the lower level of the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers. Press must enter on 52nd St. between 6th and 7th Avenues. Wired and Wireless Internet access will be provided in the Press Center. Phones will not be provided.
INTERVIEW LOCATIONS: There will be stand-up camera locations available that broadcast outlets can reserve in advance. In addition, there will be rooms available that press can reserve for interviews. To reserve a time, please contact Seth Belaff at seth@tuckerproductions.com.
POOLS: Due to space limitations, some events will be pooled press coverage. Sign-up for photo pools will be in the CGI Press Center in Conference Room E starting at 8:30AM each day for that day’s events only. There will also be video and audio feeds of most events available in the Press Center.
PRESS CONFERENCES: Press conference schedule will be announced and updated daily during CGI.
WIRELESS MICROPHONES: Please do NOT bring or use wireless microphones onsite, as they will interfere with onsite wireless PA systems.
PLENARY SESSIONS AND SELECTED PRESS CONFERENCES: Plenary sessions will be sent out via fiber, free and unrestricted, on the following loop #:
Ascent Media Loop # 2214
MULT BOX: Output specifics are: BNC connection for video and XLR for audio.
SAT TRUCK PARKING: There are a limited amount of Satellite and microwave truck parking spaces available. Please email Seth Bellaff at seth@tuckerproduction.com with a request or call at 917-414-5618.
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