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HONG KONG—Classmates Bill Clinton and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo were all praises for each other when they met at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) forum here on Tuesday.
“(She’s) someone I’m especially proud of for her extraordinary leadership and -- I’m embarrassed to say this -- my college classmate who looks 20 years younger than me,” said the former US president in introducing President Arroyo.
“Make that 30 years,” he quickly added after his former Georgetown University classmate went on stage.
Arroyo was among the 11 former and current heads of state and 195 business and civil leaders, not to mention celebrities, who attended the two-day global forum Clinton organized at the Grand Hyatt in Wan Chai.
Besides attending the conference, Arroyo also had meetings with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Mongolian President Nambaryn Enhkbayar, and Anthony Banburry, UN World Food Program regional director for Asia.
“I know many of you, particularly in these times, have other issues that could have claimed your day, so I particularly appreciate your coming,” Clinton said.
Arroyo, who was facing an impeachment attempt back home, congratulated Clinton after his wife, Hillary, was nominated by US president-elect Barack Obama as his secretary of state.
“Well, first of all Bill, let me congratulate you and Senator Hillary Clinton for being nominated as secretary of state. As a woman, I’m very proud of her and, as your classmate, I’m looking forward to our working together so that the very strong relations between the US and the Philippines will become even stronger,” the President said.
And touching on one of the primary concerns of CGI, Arroyo pointed out that the Philippines was not a major contributor to climate change.
“We contribute less than one percent. But we do our part and, if you talk about financing, because our needs are small compared to India, China, US, we find the carbon credit mechanism very useful and I hope that it can be extended beyond the period of the Kyoto protocol,” Arroyo said.
Carbon credits are a key component of national and international emissions trading schemes to mitigate global warming.
“For instance, I’ve seen carbon currency being used by Toyota (for reforestation). I’ve seen carbon credits being used to transform methane from our garbage dumps into power,” she added.
On the other hand, Clinton praised the Philippines for its use of geothermal energy.
“I think it’s worth pointing that the Philippines ranks number one in all countries in the world in the amount of electricity generated from geothermal sources. It’s something they could be very proud of,” Clinton said.
“Iceland has the capacity to do more because the population is smaller and hot springs are burgeoning up in the air all over the country. But the Philippines has done better than anybody,” he added.
Clinton said the United States “abandoned this course 20 years ago when oil got cheap again much to our regret.”
“So, now all over the country, we’re out scurrying around looking for the kind of opportunities you have already seized,” Clinton said.
The former US president established the CGI in 2005 as a “non-partisan catalyst for action that brings together global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues.”
The CGI said its members have made nearly 1,200 commitments valued at $46 billion for causes like access to schooling for 8 million children and help for 42 million malnourished children.
Besides President Arroyo, the other Filipinos participating in the conference’s plenary sessions include Fernando Zobel de Ayala, Knowledge Channel Foundation president Rina Lopez Bautista, BBC World News anchor Rico Hizon, ABS-CBN senior vice-president for news and current affairs Maria Ressa, CNN Beijing bureau chief Jaime FlorCruz, former environment secretary and current chair of Clean Air Initiative Asia Elisea Gozun, and Edgar Chua, country chairman of Shell Companies in the Philippines, Guam, Palau, and Saipan.
Actress KC Concepcion, the United Nations World Food Program’s national ambassador against hunger, was also expected to attend the conference.
