Clinton Effort Reaps Pledges of $7.3 Billion in Global Aid

NY Times
By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published: September 23, 2006

A Sheraton hotel in Midtown Manhattan was the scene of feverish matchmaking over the past three days during Bill Clinton’s second annual gathering on global problems.

Only those who promised to do something concrete about poverty, disease, conflict or climate change were invited. The entry fee for aspiring philanthropists was $15,000. Hundreds lined up for the privilege.

In cafes, hallways and conference rooms, some of the many rich people Mr. Clinton has gotten to know over the years — and others he has never met or knows only as acquaintances — brainstormed with leaders of nonprofit groups, African health ministers and others who had their own plentiful ideas about how to put that wealth to work.

Kathy Sloane, a real estate broker with a cream-colored Chanel bag dangling on her arm, listened intently at workshops on global warming and religious and ethnic conflict.

A senior vice president of Brown Harris Stevens who helped the Clintons find their homes, she said Thursday that she was torn about which problem to tackle, but later settled on climate change, committing herself to work for energy conservation in the 150 high-rise buildings that her company manages in New York City.

In another packed session just down the hall, former President Jimmy Carter made the case for donations to support cheap treatments of the neglected tropical diseases he has long fought — and got some nibbles.

“I’m not kidding,” Mr. Carter, 81, said with an eager gleam in his eye. “You get the phone numbers to this table, I will call tomorrow.”

The star of this show was, of course, another snowy white-haired Democrat. Each time Mr. Clinton came to the stage of the grand ballroom, a sonorous, disembodied voice asked the crowd to welcome the 42nd president of the United States and inspiring movie theme music swelled at his approach.

Yesterday, Mr. Clinton triumphantly announced the results of this year’s Clinton Global Initiative from a circular stage in a hushed ballroom filled with more than 1,000 people.

“As of now, we have 215 commitments from two times that many people and the value, my staff swears, is $7.3 billion,” he said.

Many of the larger undertakings were announced with great fanfare by Mr. Clinton this week.

Sir Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur, had promised to invest an estimated $3 billion of his personal profits from airlines and a rail company over the next decade in renewable energy sources.

Various individuals, nonprofit groups and corporations — among them John and Jacque Weberg, who prospered as owners of a chain of Midwestern furniture stores, and Citigroup — cumulatively committed to spend over $1 billion on microfinance programs that provide poor people with loans, savings and insurance.

Mr. Clinton yesterday asked Google’s wealthy founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who he said “barely looked old enough to shave,” to stand and accept his thanks for giving free advertising on their search engine to any nonprofit group or charity that made a commitment through the Clinton Global Initiative.

Mr. Clinton has sought to position “C.G.I.” as above the partisan fray. “All we tried to do is create a small piece of common ground in a contentious world,” he said.

On Wednesday, Mr. Clinton rubbed his chin contemplatively and listened attentively as Laura Bush described her husband’s accomplishments on global AIDS and malaria.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York was the moderator at a panel yesterday morning on women’s role in development.

Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell spoke at another of the panel discussions.

And yesterday afternoon, Mr. Clinton boasted about the odd couple supporting his own climate change program, which tries to help dozens of big cities buy products to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Barbra Streisand, the liberal singer and actress, donated $1 million and Rupert Murdoch, the conservative media mogul, gave $500,000.

“She says Rupert’s richer than her and should give more,” Mr. Clinton joked as Ms. Streisand went to the stage.

But there was an undercurrent of political ferment at the conference.

To fulfill the requirement that they do something to take part in the Clinton Global Initiative, David and Lisa U’Prichard of Philadelphia said they were looking for a way to help wealthy people calculate how much money they gained from the Bush administration’s tax cut and to encourage them give it away.

Mrs. U’Prichard said laughingly that her husband, now a venture capitalist, “worked in the evil pharmaceutical industry. And I made a bunch of money in the stock market.” She added, “All the guys who opposed the Bush tax cuts for the top 1 percent should donate away at least that much money.”

The speaker who brought down the house was Al Gore, who delivered an extemporaneous riff on global warming and the “planetary emergency.” He was the most explicitly political of the speakers and called for replacing payroll taxes with a tax on pollution. He argued that there are limits to what philanthropy and private undertakings can do.

“I have been extremely impressed at the role played by visionary C.E.O.’s who have provided important leadership in helping to organize the response for the climate crisis,” he said. “And I commend them. But I think it’s time for all of us to recognize that it is government that sets the rules within which business competes. And the rules that are currently in play now send the wrong signals.”

The audience left buzzing about whether Mr. Gore might join the presidential contest along with Mr. Clinton’s wife.

Asked about the speculation that followed his former vice president’s remarks, Mr. Clinton said yesterday morning that better public policies were needed, but there was still much that private action could accomplish.

He said he found it “immensely rewarding” to see Mr. Gore getting such a warm response, recalling the lunches they used to have when they were in office.

“He did me his little carbon chart thing — I know he believes this,” Mr. Clinton said as he strode into the ballroom. “People are always compelling when they follow their heart and head.”