Former US President Bill Clinton has opened the annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) conference in New York. The meeting calls for attendees to support political and economic efforts towards climate sustainability.

The CGI started in 2005. When in office, Clinton became frustrated with attending conferences that he says were more talk than action.

Bill Clinton, founder of the CGI, said, "Regardless of what you do, regardless of how much money you have or don't have, how are you going to do it so that you maximize the positive impact in other people's lives? This whole initiative is in the 'How' business."

The fifth of these philanthropic conference comes as world leaders gather at the United Nations for their annual General Assembly meeting.

US President Barack Obama challenged the audience to heed the call to public service on the opening plenary of the four-day conference.

Barack Obama said, "You don't have to hold a public office to be a public servant. That's the beauty of service, anybody can do it, and everyone should try."

Actor Matt Damon and activist Gary White are the founders of the non-profit group Water.org.

They announced their plans to invest two million US dollars to provide safe water and sanitation to the island nation of Haiti.

Matt Damon said, "Haiti is in dire need of more effective and sustainable solutions that will guarantee its population has access to some of life’s most basic necessities. Currently, only 51 percent of rural residents have access to safe drinking water, while only 29 percent of urban areas have proper sanitation coverage."

About 1,200 people are attending this year's philanthropic conference.

To join CGI they must make a commitment to fight problems in education, energy, climate change, health and economic empowerment.

(CCTV September 24, 2009)