Bill Clinton move

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is teaming up with five banks, including Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., energy service companies and 16 cities in a bid to combat global climate change by curbing energy use in municipal buildings.
The banks -- which also include ABN Amro Holding NV, UBS AG and Deutsche Bank AG -- have each committed $1 billion in loans to fund upgrades in municipal buildings in cities such as New York, Rome, Bangkok, Mexico City, London, Johannesburg and Tokyo.
The combined $5 billion pool of loans, which will be available to cities and private building owners immediately, is more than double the current global market for building retrofits, Clinton said today at a conference in New York where about 250 mayors and urban planners are meeting this week to discuss how to reduce global-warming pollution in urban areas.
The building improvements are expected to produce energy savings ranging from 25 percent to 50 percent, according to Clinton.
Buildings are often the largest energy users, accounting for half of all energy consumption in newer cities and more than 70 percent in older ones such as New York. Buildings, through their heating and cooling systems and other features, account for almost 40 percent of the world's global-warming pollution, according to a news release from the New York-based Clinton Foundation.
The project's aim of cutting through bureaucratic and financial hurdles in upgrading a building may provide Johnson Controls with ``unlimited opportunities,'' said David Meyers, president of the company's building efficiency unit, in an interview. Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls, the world's largest maker of car batteries, also provides environmental control systems for commercial buildings.