NEW YORK (AP/1010 WINS) -- Former Vice President Al Gore told attendees Wednesday at the Clinton Global Initiative to reach out to U.S. senators and urge them to pass climate change legislation, saying it was the ``crucial step'' in solving the climate crisis.
Photo Gallery: Clinton Global Initiative 2009
Gore, who won the Nobel Peace Price in 2007 for his efforts to combat global warming, said it was vital that Congress come close to passing legislation to combat climate change before a U.N. conference in December in Copenhagen.
To that end, he asked any attendee at the conference with any kind of friendship or relationship with a senator to call them or meet with them to about the importance of legislation on climate change.
``The United States must play a crucial role and in order to do so, the president has to be able to go there with a credible bargaining postion. ... The crucial step in solving the climate crisis is actually now to get the United States Senate to pass legislation,'' Gore said.
Gore spoke on the second day of the Clinton Global Initiative, an annual event started by former President Bill Clinton that brings together the public and private sector to discuss solutions to problems in four areas -- climate change, poverty, global health and education.
In the morning session, the importance of gender equality took center stage, with speakers emphasizing how investing in girls and women can have repercussions at all levels of a society.
``No country can prosper if it leaves half its people behind,'' said Melanne Verveer, the State Department's ambassador-at-large for global women's issues.
Diane Sawyer, the new ABC evening news anchor who moderated the panel, asked what impact empowering and educating women could have on extremism.
``The most dangerous places in the world, frankly, are those places where women are put down in the greatest way. It's where societies implode and where states fail,'' Verveer replied.
Clinton opened the morning session by highlighting a number of commitments that had been made in the area of empowering women, and emphasized the importance of the issue.
``Whether the issue is improving the involvement of young women and girls in education, to climate change and all political, economic, and social issues in between, I think empowering women is central to what the world has to do in the 21st century,'' he said.
The conference started Tuesday, with President Barack Obama among the speakers.
Attendees at the conference are expected to make concrete commitments on steps they will take to work on global problems. Since the first conference, 1,400 commitments have been made, said Robert Harrison, the initiative's chief executive officer. Some have been worth billions of dollars.
Those who don't follow through on their commitments are not allowed to return.
E-Mail Story
Print Story
