 Past recipients of the award include Mexican businessman and philanthropist Carlos Slim, Irish billionaire Denis O'Brien, Moroccan entrepreneur Mohammad Abbad Andaloussi, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Afghan women's rights activist Suraya Pakzad, Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernández, and Pakistani labor rights activist Syeda Ghulam Fatima.In August 2006, Bill Clinton started a program to fight climate change, the Clinton Foundation's Climate Initiative (CCI)
.The CCI directly runs various programs to prevent deforestation and to rehabilitate forests and other landscapes worldwide, develop clean energy, and help island nations threatened by rising ocean levels.