Today's press conference with former President Bill Clinton was pretty interesting. Asked about his motivation for running the Clinton Global Initiative, he gave two boilerplate goo-goo reasons, and then said:

And the third reason is: Because I like it. I feel like I should look for someone to pay money to every day for the privilege of being able to do this work. I mean, it's a wonderful thing; it's more interesting than anything I can imagine doing.

Another reporter asked Clinton if he preferred a carbon tax or a carbon market:

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, first of all, I think that--while we should all be personally impatient to do more on climate change--we should recognize that in the great sweep of history, typically people propose changes that are not embraced right away... People ask me all the time, you know they say, "Well, you failed to get healthcare reform, and you failed to make peace in the Middle East." Well I say, "It's a very good thing to fail in the right cause, because it keeps free people stumbling in the right direction." You know, politics is an inexact Pilgrim's Progress.... You just do these things because you know they have to be done, and sooner or later if you get really fortunate, the circumstances and the attitudes meet....

On the carbon market, we wanted one, and we had hoped to be able to persuade everybody to participate. Now, more and more economists in the U.S. and around the world believe that a carbon tax is a better policy because it is an incentive to individuals to use less carbon-producing substances, whatever they are, and to conserve more. In theory, that is right. Plus, it's hard to develop a carbon market that you can't evade and gain. On the other hand, I still believe that  ... the green market, the market for averting the worst consequences of climate change, is underorganized, undercapitalized, with low levels of consumer understanding. Therefore I still favor the carbon market as opposed to the carbon tax. Keep in mind: Al Gore and I passed the carbon tax through one house of the Congress in 1993 and that also got beat; we got a long way on that. But I think the carbon market is better because I think it will energize all these investors and idea people and will create the kind of multifaceted change that will be really necessary to prove that we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and grow the economy at the same time.

MARK WILSON/Getty Images News

It's not easy defending the Bush administration's delaying tactics on climate change, but U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson made a go of it this morning.

Asked by an aggressive Tom Brokaw about whether Republicans in the U.S. Congress are doing anything on climate change, U.S. Treasury Secretary paused for a second, and conceded dryly that there is a "wide variety of knowledge" on the Hill about the issue.

Asked about a global deal based around binding emissions targets, proposed by Tony Blair, Paulson said, "it just depends on what your expectations are."

H. Lee Scott, president and CEO of Wal-Mart, spoke yesterday here at the Clinton Global Initiative about his company's efforts to be environmentally friendly:

Well, what we found is we’ve gone down this journey in sustainability, is the first things we’re doing is we are taking waste out of this whole stream of products and things that all of us are using. And they’re not exotic decisions. One I talked to General Mills about is that they straightened the noodles on the Hamburger Helper, and more noodles go into the box, and the boxes are now smaller. And thousands of tons of waste are eliminated, truck loads of movement are eliminated, fuel is eliminated.

The Atlantic's Matt Yglesias, who is here at CGI as well, was pretty critical yesterday of Scott:

Right now, for example, we have Al Gore, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Archbiship Desmond Tutu, Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott, Filipino president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and World Bank chief Robert Zoellick up on a podium to discuss "the need for global action." Clinton moderates, and leads by asking Karzai to make the case that Afghanistan is a good investment opportunity. I, for one, look forward to WalMart Kandahar. Maybe they could turn their union-busting expertise against the Taliban.

Matt is obviously forgetting the parable of the dentist from Tyler Cowen's book, Discover Your Inner Economist:

One study compared two methods for cleaning up a school. Authorities could (a) lecture students that they should be neat and tidy, or (b) compliment them for being neat and tidy. The lecturing had no effect, but the praise increased litter collection by a factor of three. The students saw a gain from identifying as clean and conscientious people; if anything, scolding usually makes such a self-image more difficult to adopt. [...]

With my current dentist, I pretend to have no fear. At the end of the visit I say what a great job she did. I expect better performance by supporting her self-image as a good dentist and, since she is new in my life, I find high-powered incentives difficult to apply. In any case I do not have access to penalties. But she may get a Christmas gift (even though she is Hindu). 

In that spirit, great job, Wal-Mart! Keep up the good work! 

Yesterday, I spoke with Reverend Jim Ball, who is president and CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Movement and a senior advisor to the Evagelical Climate Initiative. Rev. Ball was a panelist here at CGI, and he's a major player in the "creation care" movement, an initiative by some evangelical Christians to influence the climate-change debate:

FP: Where does the evangelical community fit into the U.S. political landscape?

Rev. Jim Ball: Depending on how you define "evangelical," we represent about 25 percent of the population. So, a significant amount. And obviously a good number of us vote and so political leaders tend to take what we do a little seriously. We think we can make an important contribution in terms of getting those who may not listen to other voices. They may not listen to environmentalists or they may not listen to former Vice President Al Gore, but maybe they'll listen to us and give this issue a hearing. We've got Republican governors really taking a lead now. We have Governor Crist [of Florida] and Governor Schwarzenegger [of California]; we have Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, who is an evangelical Christian himself, taking bold leadership steps. Governor Pawlenty is now the chair of the National Governor’s Association and he has made energy and climate his issue.

FP: What about President Bush? Have you gotten an audience with him?

JB: Well, no, not literally. He is aware of our work and his senior advisors who deal with the religious community are obviously knowledgeable about what we're doing. But if the president is not ready to take significant action, we're not waiting for him. We're going to continue to move forward. I think the president's getting together of leaders of the 16 large emitters is a positive step. But if all that they agree to do is voluntary measures, we've been doing that for 17 years. We've tried voluntary and it hasn't worked. We need a mandatory approach so that all business decisions that have anything to do with global warming, they understand that there is a bit of a cost there. We believe in the markets. We believe that once you get the price right, that the price really reflects the true cost of what you are doing. The free markets are going to solve this problem, I am totally and utterly confident.

FP: So you think it is doable, that climate change can be stopped?

JB: We say we are going to help solve global warming, with the Lord’s help. It is a huge task to solve global warming and there are going to be serious ramifications throughout this century. But there are so many positive benefits to addressing this issue: reducing pollution that harm’s human health; reducing mercury pollution that impacts the unborn; making our industries more energy efficient; creating the technologies that we can sell to others. There is no way that energy is not going to be a growth industry in this century. Why shouldn't we be the ones selling the technologies to everybody to else? As a Christian, I shouldn't be so biased about who sells it. But United States needs to get in this game, because once we really start to lead, then the world is really going to get seriously engaged and involved in this issue.

FP: The Bali conference in December is shaping up to be a huge deal, and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has made it a top priority. What is your organization looking for from President Bush in Bali?

JB: Ideally, we would love for him to go there and say, "We are ready to make a commitment on a mandatory approach." I don’t think that is very likely. But if we can't have that, if what they are doing now with the 16 other nations can be a positive compliment to what they are doing in Bali, then that would be helpful.

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It seems that Angelina Jolie and hubby Brad Pitt have taken the advice of FP contributor Rob Long to heart and are deploying their star power in a major way. At a packed press conference at the annual conference of the Clinton Global Initiative this afternoon, Jolie helped launch a "historic education partnership for children of conflict" in partnership with CGI, UNICEF, Save the Children, and a number of other organizations. (Just to give you a sense of the atmosphere in the room, a casual flip of Jolie's hair set off every flash bulb in the room, not to mention a few camera phones.)

As for Brad, introduced earlier today as "the sexiest man alive," he debuted a plan in concert with famed green designer Bill McDonough to build 150 new "affordable and sustainable homes" in New Orleans's devastated Ninth Ward. (For you gossips out there, Angelina and Brad never appeared publicly in the same room today at CGI, as far as I know—though they did show up together last week for the New York premiere of "Darfur Now".) 

But my favorite moment today by far was when famed primatologist Jane Goodall proved that she can still speak chimpanzee. You can download or listen to the mp3 clip of Goodall here.

Ted Turner, a.k.a. the "Mouth of the South," has been pretty interesting today. Speaking on getting the business community more engaged on climate change, he said:

Businessmen, first and foremost, are human beings. They're fathers and grandfathers, too, like all the rest of us ... Since we're fathers and grandfathers first, we care about what happens to the world, particularly as it affects our families and our customers and everybody else. Businessmen are human beings, and that means they're motivated by two different things, like all other people: fear and greed. And global climate change fits right in. It scares the livin' daylights out of you, but it motivates you to do something about it. And that means go green. It's going to be the biggest business opportunity that there's ever been, because the whole world very rapidly is gonna have to move away from fossil fuels.

And here he is rapping about CNN, his creation that is now part of the Time Warner conglomerate, and the decline of news. Like other networks, CNN is no longer about substance, he said:

CHIP SOMODEVILLA/Getty Images News

Ted Turner: CNN is guilty of it now. I made a big mistake letting it get away, but I didn't intend to. I didn't intend to, but I did. Because if there was just one company out there that at least tried to do it, but there are none of them. I don't think any of 'em, of the major companies, are giving us the important news. And they're not giving us the news about the war in Iraq, either. Watch the newscasts for a half an hour and see they won't even mention how many people were killed yesterday. And they never show you a coffin; the government won't let 'em film 'em, you know. We're underinformed, and we're letting it happen at our peril.

Moderator Daniel C. Esty: So, one of the interesting things is the Murdoch family seems to have taken this issue seriously, so we may see a Wall Street Journal with a new spin as soon as the new regime takes over.

Turner: And when I read that I sent Rupert a congratulatory letter [huge laughter]. I did, I mean, I did. [looks around mischievously]

One of the unique aspects of the Clinton Global Initiative—and CGI's press materials beat you over the head with this—is that it's very much about results, not just talk. The way it works is this: CGI members, some 1,300 of whom are here in New York today, make a commitment to a concrete initiative, and the Foundation holds their feet to the fire. If you don't fulfill your commitment (and 12 CGI staff members are at your beck and call for assistance), you essentially get voted off the island, and aren't invited to the next annual meeting. Some 174 of 631 commitments have already been fulfilled since CGI began in 2005. Seventeen CGI members weren't invited back last year, and five people didn't make it for the 2007 annual meeting.

I was really curious to find out who hasn't delivered, so I asked Clinton's communications director to name names. "We don't want to be the philanthropy police," he said, but admitted that it would be possible to figure it out by process of elimination. The trick, however, is that not all commitments are for just one year, so it's not easy to do so.

And now, making a commitment is not just for bigshots: You, too, can make a commitment at CGI's new Web site, MyCommitment.org. This morning, Clinton mentioned Kiva, a "Web 2.0" site that allows people to make one-to-one micro-donations to people around the world, and MyCommitment.org looks very similar. No word yet on whether failing to meet your commitment gets you into trouble with Bubba.

AFP/Getty Images

I never knew South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu was such a hoot. A couple winning lines from his appearance at the CGI opener this morning:

On the Dalai Lama: "He's about the only non pop star who, when he comes to New York, can fill Central Park ... and he doesn't even speak English properly!"

On Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi: "How can men armed to the teeth be scared of a petite, demure, beautiful woman? She's my only pinup in my office."

Note: Quotes slightly corrected based on the official transcript.

Bill Clinton, introducing Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative, quoted Desmond Tutu thusly:

Religion is like a knife. If you use it to cut bread, it's good. If you use it to cut your neighbor's arm off, it's bad. 

Yesterday was my last day reporting from the United Nations. With all of the focus on Ahmadinejadapalooza (more on that later), I didn't get a chance to mention one of the aspects of President Bush's speech that set some tongues a-clucking. Tim Wirth, who heads the U.N. Foundation, had this to say:

This morning, President Bush admonished the UN to ‘live up to its promise to promptly deploy peacekeeping forces to Darfur.’ However, the Administration has requested funding for only 20% of its share of the Darfur mission, and is heading towards a debt of more than $1 billion for UN peacekeeping overall. It is impossible for the UN to ‘live up to its promise’ to deploy peacekeepers to Darfur if nations like the United States fail to pay for the peacekeeping missions that they vote for in the Security Council.

Today, I'm at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers for the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)—and boy, is it good to be here. For all of the great things about the U.N., the place has a creepy, "New Tomorrowland" feel to it (not to mention the asbestos problem). And with 2,000 members of the press and I don't know how many delegates, the bewildering, maze-like complex of buildings is a zoo. Everywhere you go, there are internal security checkpoints. If your badge is the wrong color, you can forget about gaining access. CGI, based in a modern hotel with no asbestos, operates on a much more human scale, and the staff here bends over backwards to be helpful. I expect the sessions to be much more free-wheeling and interesting, in contrast to the staid official-speak of the U.N. Plus, the wireless actually works and there's free coffee, the fuel that powers the world's journalists. Expect more energetic posts from me today and tomorrow.