Former President Bill Clinton has reconvened the Clinton Global Initiative, a meeting of international leaders, for the first time since 2016 as he says the world is "on fire."
Bill Clinton shared during his speech at the two-day conference's opening public session that "Somebody needs to show up and make something good happen."
As for who he wants to step up, the former president called out governments, philanthropies, businesses, and other prominent institutions to step up and do their part.
The Clinton Foundation has quite the list of attendees to its conference, with leaders and people of influence from around the globe showing up, including Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, actor Matt Damon, and Jordan's Queen Rania Al Abdullah.
"The world's on fire in a lot of different ways," he told The Associated Press in an interview. "But there are a lot of things that businesses, non-governmental groups, and governments working together can do to help with a lot of these problems."
CGI was founded in 2005 and required attendees to create a Commitment to Action that will look to resolve a current issue facing the world. Chelsea Clinton, the Vice Chair of the Clinton Foundation, shared that they call it a "bias toward action." Her father said that the goal is to get people together to work out problems that otherwise might not have been solved.
"I think there is a longing for people to get together and meet with an end in mind," Clinton said to the AP. "Not just talk about it, but knowing that when they walk away, they will have committed to doing something."
While the foundation had to reject 1,000 would-be attendees due to this year's high volume of participants, Bill Clinton shared that he is still counting on those in attendance to tackle current issues.
"We've got the largest number of migrants since World War II," he said. "And the most publicity they get in America is when one governor or two turns it into some political issue and tries to make problems for other people. Sensible countries work together and try to figure out the best way to deal with it."
Speaking about the conference on MSNBC, former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shared that the meeting is about getting things done.
"We're Americans. We get things done when we put our minds to it," she said. "Enough of the nonsense of sending these poor Venezuelans to Martha's Vineyard or excusing a former president who has stolen classified information that belongs to our country. Let's get together and do some things that will show we are still in the game and that we are at the top of our game."
Those interested in following speakers and events taking place at the conference can follow along online.
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