The Clinton Global Initiative is holding its fifth annual meeting this week in New York City. The event brings together an A-list group of leaders and luminaries from the worlds of business, government, academia, science, and nongovernmental organizations. On the agenda are energy and climate change, education, global health, and economic empowerment.

Some 1,400 "commitments to actions" have come out of the initiative since former president Bill Clinton (shown yesterday with President Barack Obama) founded the CGI in 2005. Last year, Jack Hidary, chairman of SmartTransportation.org, announced the Car Allowance Rebate System, or cash for clunkers.

Hidary was on hand yesterday to discuss the journey from commitment announcement to headline news. He explained that it was the memory of his grandmother receiving a rebate for her old refrigerator that inspired cash for clunkers. He noted his satisfaction that the $300 million State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, aka cash for clunkers for appliances, brings things full circle.

At this year's CGI, energy efficiency has been a hot topic. President Clinton observed yesterday that the United State ranks 100th in the world for energy efficiency. Bracken Hendricks, a fellow at the Center for American Progress, said that "the U.S. is the Saudi Arabia of energy efficiency in terms of this untapped resource."

Several commitments made this week target energy efficiency. Duke Energy and ENN announced an agreement to speed up the development of low-carbon and clean technologies. Among the innovations they'll look to accelerate is the use of algae to soak up greenhouse gases.

There's also lots of buzz around a session planned for this afternoon called "Infrastructure Special Session: Building a Better Future—A Progress Report on Making it Right in New Orleans." Some of the interest might come from the fact that Brad Pitt started the Make It Right Foundation, which aims to rebuild New Orleans in a sustainable manner and was launched at the 2007 CGI meeting. Today's session will provide an update of that effort and is expected to spin out into other exciting areas of green building.

You can stream video of this or any other session at the CGI Web cast. We'll continue to report on interesting commitments that came out of from the meeting.—Daniel DiClerico | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook