Midtown Manhattan is a madhouse this week. Both the opening session of the 62nd UN General Assembly and the Clinton Global Initiative are in town and bring with them both an unprecedented group of world leaders and a complex security situation. As I shuttle back and forth between the two events, I am struck by the competence of the New York Police Department. I can't even imagine the intricacies involved in securing an area this large and vulnerable, but they have every appearance of having it under control. I'm confident at least. This is an apropos moment to bring up the UN's Capital Master Plan, a plan to renovate the UN Headquarters in New York City, which has not happened since the complex was built in 1950, and bring the building up to current safety and security codes.
Two interesting things that I heard during the CGI plenary on deforestation (see below): Franz Tattenbach, the Executive Director of FUNDECOR, talked about the progress that has been made in reforesting Costa Rica, which has gone from 26 percent coverage to 50 percent coverage. "How did we do it? We put a price on carbon." FUNDECOR works directly with individuals who own rain forest land to create incentives for not clear cutting their property. They do so by sending foresters and strategists to develop sustainable individualized plans to help the owners selectively harvest their forests and maximize their profits from that harvest.
The closing plenary of the first day of CGI has started (watch live). It will feature a discussion on children in conflict with Angelina Jolie (see below), Nicolas Kristof, Mohammed Atmar, Valentino Deng, and Alvaro Uribe. But first, President Clinton announced some commitments and made a comment about energy efficiency. He said that if the leading emitters of carbon -- including the U.S., China, and India -- were to bring their energy efficiency levels to that of Japan, global greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by 20 percent. Remarkable. For a summary of what that might look like, check out this report.
The press room here cleared out about 15 minutes ago. Angelina Jolie is in the room next door announcing her new Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, "a historic education partnership to address the needs of children living in conflict, post-conflict refugee, and emergency situations." This alliance has been built out of a long and diverse list of partners including UNICEF, Save the Children, the Sesame Workshop, UNHCR (Angelina's tie-in). They are making the commitment to help 350,000 children go to school and improve the learning environment of another 650,000 -- including 200,000 Iraqi refugees (maybe Angelina advocated for this after her recent trip) and 300,000 children affected by Darfur. As you can see from the photo above, there were many up on the stage, but Angelina got about 80 percent of the questions.
The Clinton Global Initiative's afternoon plenary on "Protecting Tropical Forests" has just begun. I'm in the press room tuning in. This session is being moderated by climate expert Rosina Bierbaum. In her opening remarks, she lays out a pretty persuasive case for why we should be paying more attention to tropical forests, particularly if we are interested in addressing climate change. According to Bierbaum, "forests are the lungs of the world," and their decimation is responsible for 20 percent of carbon emissions. Apparently, if we continue on the same path, over the next hundred years, deforestation would add 80 to 135 million tons of carbon to the atmosphere, the equivalent of one or two decades of fossil fuel burning. It would also decrease the Earth's biodiversity by 20 to 40 percent. She just passed the mic over to Jane Goodall. I'll keep you posted.
...at the opening of the 62nd General Assembly today:
With the commitment and courage of this chamber, we can build a world where people are free to speak, assemble, and worship as they wish a world where children in every nation grow up healthy, get a decent education, and look to the future with hope, a world where opportunity crosses every border. America will lead toward this vision where all are created equal, and free to pursue their dreams. This is the founding conviction of my country. It is the promise that established this body. And with our determination, it can be the future of our world. Thank you, and may God bless you all.
(Full text of the President's speech). More analysis to come.