Clinton Climate Initiative

Building on his long-term commitment to preserving the environment, President Clinton launched the Clinton Foundation’s Climate Initiative (CCI) in August 2006 with the mission of applying the Foundation’s business-oriented approach to the fight against climate change in practical, measurable and significant ways.

In its first phase, CCI is working with the C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, an association of large cities dedicated to tackling climate change—to develop and implement a range of actions that will accelerate greenhouse gas emissions reductions. With cities contributing approximately 75 percent of all heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions to our atmosphere, while only comprising 2 percent of land mass, large cities are critical to winning this fight and slowing the pace of global warming.

In May, mayors, chief climate officials and business leaders from 45 cities met in New York for the second C40 Large Cities Climate Summit to share best practices, identify collaborative projects and chart future action in the fight against global warming. To see who attended and what they accomplished, visit www.nycclimatesummit.com/.

During the summit, President Clinton announced a new program that brings together cities, building owners, banks and energy-service companies to make changes to existing buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For more information on how this announcement will allow cities to save money and help save our planet, click here.

In addition to coordinating this program, CCI is providing direct assistance to individual cities and facilitating the sharing of best practices. CCI is also working to organize a purchasing consortium that will help cities buy energy efficient technologies at lower prices and create a measurement and information tool to help cities take an inventory of energy use to help direct future activities. For the latest news and programs, visit www.c40cities.org/.