President Clinton’s push to get his wife elected to the White House did not stop him from teaming up with Mayor Bloomberg, another potential candidate, on new climate control initiatives yesterday.

Messrs. Clinton and Bloomberg made a joint appearance at the Waldorf Astoria to announce a new program that will pay for 16 worldwide cities, including New York, to renovate municipal buildings to make them more environmentally friendly.

The Clinton Climate Initiative program tapped five of the world’s largest banks, which will each put up $1 billion, to finance the building retrofits at no cost to the cities. Four of the world’s largest energy companies will perform audits of the buildings and look for ways to make them more energy efficient. The cities have agreed to pay back loans and interest through their expected energy savings.

“It’s a big deal in New York City,” Mr. Clinton said during a news conference with Mr. Bloomberg, Mayor Livingstone of London, and a number of other international mayors. “As I said 79% of our emissions come from buildings.”

Mr. Clinton also gave Mr. Bloomberg’s congestion pricing proposal a boost, saying: “The longer I wait in traffic the better I like it.” He said the climate announcement was more important because buildings produce far more pollution than cars. But added: “I wouldn’t bet against the mayor’s judgment on this.”

Mr. Clinton presented the new initiative as an unprecedented measure that would create energy savings between 20% and 50%.