1 Former President + 16 Cities = A Greener Earth

Former President Bill Clinton, spoke at a press conference in New York earlier this month and announced that 16 cities will receive financing to the transition to "go green" as part of a global plan to reduce carbon emissions and save much needed energy. The sixteen cities are based around the world and include New York, Chicago, Houston, Tokyo, Berlin, London, and Rome. The other cities taking part in the building plan are Mumbai, Karachi, Seoul, Bangkok, Melbourne, Sao Paulo, and Johannesburg.

Bill Clinton's foundation has arranged for four major energy service companies and five global banking institutions, which include Citi, JP Morgan Chase, and Deutsche
Bank, to contribute $1 billion each to help finance the cities movement becoming greener. The cities will perform renovations of buildings and factories, as well as utilizing new technology to cut carbon emissions and save energy.

The foundation also announced that the exact nature of the financing will be determined in coming months, and will likely differ from city to city. With the money from the banks, cities will get the green technology at little to no cost. The cities will have to pay back the bank loans, plus interest, and will do this through the energy savings that the projects achieve over several years.

To ensure the savings, Honeywell, Johnson Controls Inc., Siemens and Trane will conduct energy audits of the buildings. If the expected savings are not what they are planned to produce than the companies will pay the difference or make the changes in the buildings, the foundation stated.

Bill Clinton made the announcement alongside the mayors of several cities, including Mayor Bloomberg, who was quoted in the Associated Press article on Yahoo News as saying, "It really is groundbreaking; it really is going to make a difference."

The meeting of Bill Clinton and the mayors is the second such meeting of the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit, which was created for the purpose of devising and sharing strategies to combat climate change and enable cities to become more energy-efficient.

Many cities across the world, including Chicago, have already taken steps to "go green", and have managed to save huge amounts in energy costs over the past several years as a result. This was another way the cities are going to pay back the loans.

Bill Clinton wants his foundation to expand the number of cities that will receive financing in future months. In an Associated Press article on Yahoo News, Warren Karlenzig, author of "How Green Is Your City?” said, "The technology is there and these retrofits have been crying out to happen."

As Always, Keep it Green