This upcoming week, New York City will be the center of gravity for action against climate change. On September 23rd, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will host the United Nations Climate Summit, where world leaders from governments, civil society, the private sector and financial institutions are invited to catalyze ambitious action for a global climate agreement.

There is a massive, global demand for urgent solutions to address climate change. It affects people’s lives every day, in each and every country, with dramatic consequences. Climate change is no longer a local issue; it is everywhere, and it’s happening now.

That is why this week, besides the UN Climate Summit, New York will host the biggest climate demonstration in history, the People’s Climate March. Thousands of people from all parts of the United States will flood the streets of Manhattan to call for their leaders to take ambitious action to tackle climate change.

This is huge - another reminder to urgently act on climate change.

The year 2014 ranks as Earth’s warmest since 1880, according to two separate analyses byNASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists. 2014 was 0.69°C (1.24°F) above the 20th century average of 14.1°C, making it the hottest year on record since NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center began taking measurements in 1880.

The 10 warmest years in the instrumental record, with the exception of 1998, have now occurred since 2000. This trend continues a long-term warming of the planet, according to an analysis of surface temperature measurements by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) in New York.