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Movers, shakers and celebrities gather in NYC for Clinton Global Initiative

Former US president Bill Clinton, right, greets his former vice president Al Gore before a panel discussion at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting on Wednesday in New York. Former British prime minister Tony Blair also attended the meeting. PHOTO: AP

Famous faces and unknowns, conservatives and liberals, business leaders and nonprofit activists turned out for the first day of the three-day Clinton Global Initiative to talk about climate change, poverty, health care and education.

The conference even brought about a brief reunion as former US president Bill Clinton and his vice president, Al Gore, shared a stage on Wednesday for a discussion of the need for global action.

Although there has been a chill in their relationship, the two Democrats spoke warmly of each other. Clinton praised Gore for his environmental activism, and Gore plugged Clinton's new book.

Gore, who won an Academy Award for his documentary An Inconvenient Truth, appeared on Monday at the UN, where he cited a lengthening list of global warming's impacts and urged world leaders to act now.

"This climate crisis is not going to be solved only by personal actions and business actions," Gore said on Wednesday at the Clinton conference. "We need changes in laws, changes in policies. We need leadership, and we need a new treaty."

"This is doable, this is not that difficult."

Brad Pitt, US actor

The initiative draws world leaders, celebrities and academics for three days of panel discussions and smaller working sessions on global issues and asks them to take concrete steps on those causes.

More than US$10 billion was pledged toward world causes in the first two conferences, and commitments were already coming in for this year.

At a luncheon session, actor Brad Pitt announced that his Make It Right project was prepared to break ground by the end of the year on 150 affordable green homes in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

"This is doable, this is not that difficult," Pitt said. "I've seen these designs. They're fantastic."

Pitt's partner, actress Angelina Jolie, announced a commitment from the members of the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, which she co-chairs, that would help educate more than 1 million children around the world.

The Education Partnership, a coalition founded last year, helps fund programs for children affected by conflict. This year's commitment includes US$1.2 million to build an educational complex in southern Sudan, a distance learning project that would reach 150,000 children, including those affected by the war in Iraq, and a plan to take Sesame Street to Afghanistan.

Other commitments included plans by Florida Power & Light to build a solar power plant as part of a US$2.4 billion clean energy program and a US$150 million promise from CARE to provide health services to 30 million women and children. There was also a US$271 million pledge from BRAC, a Bangladesh nonprofit, to provide education to 7.5 million young people in Asia and Africa.

More than 50 current and former world leaders were on the list of attendees, including former British prime minister Tony Blair.

Those who attend pay a US$15,000 registration fee and are expected to commit time or money to the conference's big issues. Those who do not fulfill their pledges are not invited back. Clinton spokesman Ben Yarrow said there were five people this year whose registration fees were not accepted.
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