Ryan Chartrand
Since his departure from the presidency in 2001, Bill Clinton has worked at the Harlem-based William J. Clinton Foundation. Clinton established the foundation to tackle issues relating to health security, economic empowerment, leadership development and the mitigation of religious and ethnic conflict.
Through its collaboration with other organizations, governments and corporations, the foundation is intended to “strengthen the capacity of people throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence.”
Continuing projects of the foundation include the expansion of low-cost drug programs for HIV/AIDS patients around the world, disaster relief in areas affected by the Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, and no-charge financial and technical consultation services to help entrepreneurs compete against larger corporations. In 2006, the Foundation created the new “Clinton Climate Initiative.” The Clinton Climate Initiative is meant to combat global climate change by encouraging governments, businesses and individuals to conserve energy.
On Wednesday, Bill Clinton announced that the Climate Initiative had finalized plans for a new project. The goal of the project, known as the Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program, is to perform energy efficiency building retrofits in 16 major cities worldwide. According to Clinton, nearly 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings. About 75 percent of all human-sourced greenhouse gases are emitted in major metropolitan areas. By focusing on the built environment in the world’s large cities, a significant dent can be put in total energy consumption and greenhouse gas generation.
Bangkok, Berlin, Chicago, Houston, Johannesburg, Karachi, London, Melbourne, Mexico City, Mumbai, New York, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo, and Toronto are all slated to participate in the program.
The Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program is a watershed event in the battle against climate change because of the size and number of the entities it has united. Honeywell; Johnson Controls, Inc, Siemens and Trane have signed on to conduct energy audits and to oversee building retrofits. These are four of the largest energy service companies in the world. Five of the largest banks in the world: ABN AMRO, Citi, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, and UBS will be playing a role in the program. Each of the banks has pledged $1 billion to fund building retrofits in the 16 participating cities.
Clinton stated in a press conference Wednesday that the banks and corporations are involved in the Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit program “because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s good for their bottom line.” The new program is an unprecedented milestone in climate change action. It will do a great deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to debunk the myth that corporate consideration of the environment is the same as corporate neglect of financial progress.
Matt Hutton is an environmental engineering senior and Green Spot columnist