Following John McCain’s stunning announcement Wednesday that he would suspend his campaign due to the US financial crisis and head back to Washington, he kept an appointment to address a gathering of world leaders and experts in poverty, energy, education and health at the 4th annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York.

Despite his threat to no-show at the scheduled televised presidential debate on Friday owing to the financial emergency, McCain kept a commitment to address the CGI membership live; Obama followed by satellite. It may well be the closest the US comes to experiencing a debate this week, while the McCain and Obama groups work out whether the scheduled debate will go ahead.

The atmosphere was electric as Senator and Mrs. McCain, and Gov. Sarah Palin joined Clinton, Gen. Wesley Clark, Lester Brown, Donna Shalala, Madeline Albright, Israeli president Shimon Peres, T. Boone Pickens, and Danish Social Democratic Party leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt among numerous heads of states and globel leaders in the audience as McCain and Obama spoke.

“We spent the first five years of this decade investing in housing,” said former President Bill Clinton, introducing the two candidates. “Now we are in a very deep ditch. But one of the competing claims for investment is energy. It’s the right security answer. It’s the right climate answer. And I know that its the small business, new jobs answer.”

“We are addressing a crisis that began not far from here in the financial district of this city,” said McCain, speaking from midtown Manhattan. “History must not record when our nation’s leadership was unable to set aside politics and unify to solve this problem. As a former Navy pilot, I know when a crisis calls “all hands on deck”. With so much on the line, for America and the world, the debate that matters most right now is taking place in the United States Capitol — and I intend to join it. Senator Obama is doing the same.”

McCain and Obama both repeated commitments from their respective energy policies. “Among our challenges,” said McCain, “shift the entire energy economy to a mix of sustainable wind, solar, biofuels and other sources yet to be invented. We will need nuclear, clean coal, and a cap and trade system to help us make the great turn.”

“We live in a time when our destinies are shared,” Obama said. “Walls have come down, markets have opened up. Growth cannot just come from the top down, but also from the bottom up. And no issue sits at the crossroads of so many issues as energy. Our dependence on gas funds terror and tyranny.”

“My first commitment,” Obama said. “An 80 percent greenhouse gas emission reduction by 2050. As president, I will implement a cap and trade system, and invest $10 billion each year for ten years, $150 billion in total, in alternative energy. Every form of renewable energy: solar wind and biofuels.”

The candidates now move to Washington today to help lawmakers hammer out a compromise bill for a Wall Street bailout.

Obama said he will move to Oxford, Mississippi Friday for the debate, while McCain said he will not proceed to the debate unless significant progress is made on the bill, which he said must be ready for market open on Monday.

Addressing the financial crisis, McCain railed against attempts by individual lawmakers to place earmarks in the bailout bill, and added “I would rather build a bridge to nowhere and put it in the desert in Sedona, Arizona than line the pockets of the Wall Steet executives who got us here in the first place.”

Sen. Obama’s complete remarks are available here.