* Bill Clinton says climate change to increase disasters
* Obama, Microsoft's Bill Gates among those attending
* Companies say good philanthropy is good for business
By Michelle Nichols
NEW YORK, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton kicked off his philanthropic summit on Tuesday by pushing corporations and non-profit groups to promote economic growth and prepare for a growing number of natural disasters.
More than 1,300 people including heads of state like U.S. President Barack Obama, business leaders such as Microsoft <MSFT.O> co-founder Bill Gates, humanitarians and celebrities are at the sixth annual Clinton Global Initiative in New York.
As countries struggle to recover from the global financial crisis, Clinton, president from 1993 to 2001, said the private sector and governments could work together to grow economies and tackle the world's problems.
"I hope when we come out of this meeting every one of you will have a clearer idea about how you can best use your resources in this climate to promote more economic growth in all the countries represented here," Clinton said.
"There are clearly things that we can do in cooperation with the private sector and with governments to accelerate economic growth across the globe," he told the opening plenary of the three day meeting.
Clinton also hoped a better way of responding to and minimizing natural and man-made disasters would be developed.
"There's every reason to believe that the incidence of economically devastating natural disasters will accelerate around the world with the changing of the climate," he said.
To attend the meeting, commitments must be made to tackle economic empowerment, education, environment and energy, and health. Clinton said that by the start of this year's meeting nearly 300 pledges valued at $6 billion had already been made.
He highlighted pledges made to help earthquake-devastated Haiti, flood-stricken Pakistan and the U.S. Gulf Coast, struck by the country's worst-ever oil spill.
PHILANTHROPY GOOD BUSINESS
Clinton is the U.N. special envoy to Haiti and co-chairs the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, tasked with determining which reconstruction projects are to receive donated funds after a Jan. 12 earthquake killed up to 300,000 people, devastated the country's economy and infrastructure and left more than a million people homeless.
He has said donor fatigue had seen less of a global response to Pakistan's flooding that has destroyed agricultural land and livestock, displaced millions of people, and caused damage the government has estimated at $43 billion.
"I know the world economy is in trouble, I know they are further away than Haiti, but 20 million people is a big blow, and I hope that the rest of us will not forget what we might be able to do," Clinton told the meeting.
When Clinton's initiative began, corporations tended to show up and write checks to fund humanitarian programs. Now many see philanthropy in terms of investment opportunities.
Proctor & Gamble <PG.N> chief executive Bob McDonald said his company would pledge to provide 2 billion packets of water purifier a year. The company has distributed 2.4 billion packets over the past six years.
"It's good business as well as good philanthropy and consumers around the world today ... want to know what they are buying into when they spend their dollars for products," McDonald told the Clinton Global Initiative.
In the past five years, there have been more than 1,700 commitments made at the initiative worth $57 billion, which the group says have improved the lives of 220 million people in more than 170 countries.
Clinton's philanthropic meeting was found to be the most popular summit for chief executives in 2009, according to a study by public relations firm Weber Shandwick.
Attendees pay $20,000 to be there and the rules state that if participants do not make or fail to keep a commitment they cannot return. (Editing by Jerry Norton)
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