 I've just returned from a very exhilarating week in New York attending a number of events there, which I think are going to be truly momentous in terms of changing the narrative globally on tackling the impacts of climate change. I spent Saturday afternoon with a very interesting group of community workers in South Bronx called South Bronx Unite led by a charismatic leader called Michael Johnson who has been organizing the community there who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy and working on the waterfront and fighting against environmental injustice from waste management companies and other industrial giants in the region. It was an exhilarating experience and they also had a very entertaining band and street theater group there so that was very interesting and it was amazing how much we had in common with the between Bangladesh and the people of the South Bronx. In the evening I was invited by the Bangladesh Environment Network to address a gathering of Bangladeshis living in the Jackson Heights area of New Queens about the issues of climate change and Bangladesh in particular and also to organize them to join the People's March on Sunday where I joined the Bangladesh Environment Network who are part of the Bangladeshi group who are part of the South Asian group in the front lines of the march on Sunday in New York. I also had a number of colleagues from the International Center for Climate Change and Development who live in the area who brought a banner and we marched under the ICAP banner as part of the South Asia group. It was a long five-hour long grueling march. Well over 300,000 people all together we filled up 6th Avenue with banners and music and it was a wonderful experience but exhausting as well. On Monday I went and met a number of the incoming ministers from the least developed countries from Bangladesh, Nepal, Benin, the Gambia to brief them about the upcoming climate summit on Tuesday where the heads of state came in and spoke. At the opening ceremony we had a very moving poem by a civil society activist and poet from the Marshall Islands that got a standing ovation and then we had heads of state from the US, President Obama, President Hollande from France made a commitment for a billion dollars to help climate change and the least developed countries heads Prime Minister Hasina Bangladesh, the President of Ethiopia, the Prime Minister of Nepal all made excellent speeches showing that the LDCs are no longer just victims but they are actually leading the fight in tackling the impacts of climate change. That was very pleasing to see them take that changing the narrative on climate change from becoming passive victims to becoming leaders of action. And as I return back from New York reflecting on the week it's too early to tell but I think that we may well have made a turning point in three senses. Firstly, linking up the bottom up with the top-down leaders of the world and people from the streets, many of the leaders in their speeches referred to the march. Secondly, in getting many more actors on board to take actions particularly the business and investment community who are now started the ball rolling on divesting out of coal in fossil fuels, that's a very good sign. And thirdly, momentum going into the UNFCC negotiations upcoming conference of parties in December this year in Lima and following that the conference of parties next year in December in Paris where we hope to have a new agreement and that will be the final proof of the pudding of whether we've actually achieved anything or not this week in New York.