But until now they have never joined forces on a project with global reach that could advance both of their legacies. They are taking on an issue ? climate change ? that may well shape the world?s economic and social future for decades to come.
Mr. Bloomberg?s billions of dollars and Mr. Clinton?s billions of friends are a potent combination, but can this unlikely power coupling make an impact in stemming rising seas or cooling the planet?
?This is enough to choke a horse, one of the two or three biggest challenges in the world,? Mr. Clinton said in an unusual joint telephone interview last week with Mr. Bloomberg. ?But if we can prove that this is good economics, good public health and fights the most calamitous consequences of climate change, then we will have done a world of good.?
Mr. Clinton and Mr. Bloomberg are men of considerable accomplishment and healthy self-regard. So, naturally, questions arose last month when they announced the merging of their climate-change initiatives into a single global effort focused on the world?s largest cities.
Who will be in charge and how will they share a stage, beginning this week when they appear together at a climate conference in São Paulo, Brazil?
?I have always thought that we should have a relationship based alphabetically on our last names,? Mr. Bloomberg said.
?I have a partnership with George W. Bush on Haiti, and I had a partnership with his dad on Katrina,? Mr. Clinton said. ?So you know, I don?t care who gets the credit.?
It was six years ago when Mr. Clinton, working with Ken Livingstone, the leftist and then-mayor of London, drew together officials from 40 of the world?s largest cities, from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Yokohama, Japan, to share ideas for reducing carbon emissions and dealing with the inevitable impacts of a changing climate. The effort was ambitious but chronically underfinanced, with an annual budget of less than $500,000.
The group met periodically to discuss climate mitigation efforts like switching to LED streetlights, retrofitting public buildings and generating energy from landfills. The William J. Clinton Foundation provided technical assistance and financing for discrete projects, but the group of cities, known as the C40, lacked a steady financing stream, a database of emissions and mitigation programs, and a professional staff.
Enter Mr. Bloomberg, who campaigned for and won the chairmanship of the group last year. He pledged $6 million a year of his foundation money for each of the next three years to bolster the C40 and essentially muscled aside the Clinton staff members working on the project. Mr. Clinton, never one to reject a gift horse, happily acceded.
?I really don?t care how you characterize it,? Mr. Clinton said. ?The fact that he made a multiyear commitment coincident with his leadership means that we will be able to go in and help cities who are in trouble financially and can?t do these projects.?
An adviser to Mr. Clinton, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to elaborate more candidly on Mr. Clinton?s remark, was a bit less diplomatic about Mr. Bloomberg?s approach. ?He came to us,? the adviser said. ?What are we going to do, fight him? They have the money; the golden rule applies.? As in, he who has the gold, rules.
The Clinton-Bloomberg partnership comes at a tough time for those fighting climate change. Congress has made it clear that it is not going to enact a national program to address global warming any time soon and the 194-nation United Nations process has made little progress toward a binding international treaty.
Donors who have provided financing for climate programs are frustrated and fatigued, and many advocacy groups are turning their attention to issues on which they can have tangible impact. Organizations are consolidating and learning to make do with less.
Mr. Bloomberg refers to this as a ?maturing? approach to activist philanthropy. ?It?s not so much people getting bored with the whole thing or walking away,? he said. ?It?s that if you?re going to live through the tough times, this type of efficiency makes sense.?



