Last week in New York City was an incredible blur of activity and energy around climate change as an challenge that we can address. Upon reflection, many are seeing this as a significant tipping point in global media coverage, corporate and governmental commitments and public attention around climate change. Even more uplifting, the tone throughout the week at various events that I attended and heard about was one of positivity and hope for actual, meaningful and most importantly, near-term change.  Ahead of all of this, there had been report after report of the economic and environmental costs and risks, and yet, or perhaps from this steady drawl of impending doom, it appears as though we are ready to navigate our businesses, economy and our society towards a path that will ensure vitality on this planet for our children. Beyond the usual suspects championing action on climate change in the corporate arena, a few notables made their presence and position known, including Apple's Tim Cook who said “the time for inaction has passed,” and commenting that we don’t need to accept any “tradeoff between economy and environment — both are doable if you innovate and set the bar high enough.”

Here's all you need to know about the week that was:

• On the eve of the Climate Summit, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund announced plans to begin divesting from fossil fuels. The fund has begun a two-step divestment process, first focusing on limiting its exposure to coal and tar sands, with a goal to reduce these investments to less than 1 percent of the total portfolio by the end of 2014. The fund is also analyzing its remaining fossil fuel exposure and says it will develop a plan for further divestment over the next few years.
• On Sunday, at least 300,000 marchers flooded the streets of New York in the largest climate change march in history, vaulting the environmental threat to the top of the global agenda. 2,700 other events were accounted for on this day, with sister marches occurring in London (40,000 people), Melbourne, Paris (25,000) and cities the world over.
• More than 1,000 businesses and investors and 74 countries (notably missing: the U.S.) called for a stable price on carbon, and some 30 companies committed to becoming carbon-pricing champions by aligning with the Business Leadership Criteria on Carbon Pricing. Last week nearly 350 global institutional investors, representing more than $24 trillion in assets, called on government leaders to adopt climate pricing.
• The New Climate Economy report demonstrated that economic growth and ambitious climate action fundamentally go hand-in-hand.
• Nearly three dozen companies signed the New York Declaration on Forests, setting a timeline to halve deforestation of natural forests by 2020 and end it altogether by 2030.
• A slew of other commitments, coming out of the UN Climate Summit from Insurance to Agricultural to Oil & Gas industries were made. Most notably a coalition of institutional investors committed to decarbonizing $100 billion by December 2015 and to measure and disclose the carbon footprint of at least $500 billion in investments.  At the event, President Obama said the US will meet its 17 percent emissions reduction target by 2020, compared to 2005 levels. The US will release a new target next year.
• CDP released its S&P 500 Climate Change Report which includes ratings and scores for participating companies along with the first of its kind financial analysis of climate action from S&P 500 leaders. Their analysis indicates that those leaders (who make the CDLI & CPLI indices) who report on climate change also show higher financial performance. Further, these climate leaders also ensure better stability, with 50% lower volatility of earnings over the past decade than their peers, and show dividends to shareholders 21% stronger than those of lower-ranked corporations. Finally, around 70% of the S&P 500 responded to CDP’s requests for disclosure and the report reveals that their environmental performance is improving. This year, almost half of respondents were ranked in CDP’s high performance bands, scoring at least a B. Only 30% of firms matched that feat in 2011’s report. More on the how, why and what this means to come in another post.
• New York City formally pledged to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 from 2005 levels. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the initiative over the weekend.
• A new coalition called We Mean Business that aims to unify the private sector voice and highlight how business can benefit from a low-carbon economy will launch. Reuters report the coalition will work with thousands of leading companies and investors. The report cites an internal rate of return of 81% (that’s a ridiculous payback) on energy efficiency in the U.S., and an IRR of 27% for those companies with the most aggressive, science-based goals and actions on climate. Even the most “expensive” options like renewables are becoming cheap so fast that it’s making CFOs’ heads spin. Further driving this return is the fact that the cost of solar PV technologies has dropped nearly 80% in five years. Assuming that we’ll lose money by radically cutting carbon has become a radically outdated idea.
• Four global transport initiatives aim to cut carbon pollution and save trillions of dollars in fuel costs. The Urban Electric Mobility Initiative — supported by companies including Michelin — aims to increase the number of electric vehicles in cities to at least 30 percent of all new vehicles sold on annual basis by 2030. The International Union of Railways launched the Low-Carbon Sustainable Rail Transport Challenge to promote the use of rails for freight and transport. The International Association of Public Transport Declaration on Climate Leadership aims to provide climate-friendly public transportation to cities. The International Civil Aviation Organization also promised to step up commitment to reach the industry’s long-term existing global goal to halve net CO2 emissions by 2050 compared to 2005 levels.
• A coalition of urban networks launched the Compact of Mayors, the world’s largest effort to date for cities to accelerate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for the impacts of climate change. They will empower cities — which account for 70 percent of the world’s energy-related emissions — to make public and deepen their commitments to GHG reductions, to reaffirm existing targets, and to report on their progress annually.
• The Better Growth, Better Climate report from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate challenged the myth that we have to choose between building a prosperous, expanding economy and doing it in a way that protects our shared home and resource base (i.e. planet earth).

It is clear that climate is back on the global agenda. Announcements of important new partnerships, financial pledges and commitments by leaders set the foundation for greater ambition for climate action at all levels of society. Of course these commitments are only the beginning—the next step is for governments and business actors to follow through and implement the actions announced. Governments must now harness this momentum to advance efforts at home and internationally ahead of COP 20 in Lima and COP 21 in Paris--including putting forward their national offers next year. With the support of business, investors, local government and civil society, they have a strong mandate to act decisively and agree to a new, ambitious global agreement in 2015.