Leaders from governments, business, finance and civil society gathered in New York this week for the UN Climate Summit to galvanize ambitions ahead of next year's climate agreement talks in Paris.

The summit was billed as one of “actions and solutions” that will help accelerate progress in cutting emissions and strengthening resilience in the face of climate change. Time will tell if it will go down in history as a breakthrough point, but here are some of the highlights that came out of the summit.

1. United States calls on China to lead the world in carbon reduction

President Barack Obama told the United Nations meeting on Tuesday that as the two largest economies and emitters, the U.S. and China have a special responsibility to lead.

Obama called on all countries to join them, spelling out that no nation could meet the global threat alone. “We recognize our role in creating the problem, we embrace our responsibility to combat it.” he said. “But we can only succeed in combatting climate change if we are joined in this effort by every nation, developed and developing alike.

"The emerging economies that have experienced some of the most dramatic growth in recent years have also emitted rising levels of carbon pollution. It is those emerging economies that are likely to produce more and more carbon emissions in the years to come. We have to set aside the old divisions, we have to raise our collective ambition.”

Ahead of the summit the U.S. announced an array of actions around renewables and energy efficiency. The U.S. has a target to reduce carbon emissions by 17 percent by 2020 based on 2005 levels. Obama says it will meet this and early next year will put forward its next target.

China pledged to take firm action on climate change. Vice premier Zhang Gaoli told the UN summit that the country's emissions would peak soon and that it would announce post 2020 actions on climate change “as soon as we can.”

2. Halting deforestation by 2030

Multinationals, governments, NGOs, civil society and indigenous leaders signed a pledge to halve the rate of loss of natural forests globally by 2020 and end natural forest loss by 2030.

They also aim to restore 350 million hectares of degraded landscapes and forestlands by 2030 — an area equivalent to that of India.

The full list of actions outlined in the New York Declaration on Forests [PDF] could reduce emissions by 4.5 to 8.8 billion tons a year by 2030, the equivalent to taking the world's one billion cars off the roads.

Paul Polman, chief executive officer of Unilever, which is one of the companies to sign the pledge, said, “Consumers have sent companies a clear signal that they do not want their purchasing habits to drive deforestation and companies are responding. Better still, companies are committing to working in partnership with suppliers, governments and NGOs to strengthen forest governance and economic incentives. It can be done and this Declaration signals a real intention to accelerate action.”

3. Energy efficiency gets a boost

Leaders from more than 40 countries, 30 cities and dozens of corporations launched large-scale commitments on energy efficiency to cut emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce energy costs.

A new Global Energy Efficiency Accelerator Platform was launched under the Sustainable Energy for All initiative, a public-private partnership led by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and World Bank President Dr. Jim Yong Kim.

One of the initiative’s primary goals is doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency by 2030. The Platform includes five energy efficiency sector initiatives: vehicles, lighting, appliances, buildings and district energy systems with initiatives to promote energy efficiency in industry, the power sector and small and medium size enterprises under way.

“Energy efficiency has enormous potential to increase global productivity and prosperity while cutting waste and limiting emissions,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, who co-chairs the energy efficiency work of the Sustainable Energy for All Advisory Board. “We must move quickly, decisively and in concert to enact and expand these bold measures."

4. Cameron pushes European Union leaders to cut emissions

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron urged EU leaders to commit to cutting carbon emissions at the climate agreement talks that will take place in Paris next year.

We now need the whole world to step up to deliver a new, ambitious, global deal which keeps the two degree goal within reach, he said. "I’ll be pushing European Union leaders to come to Paris with an offer to cut emissions by at least 40% by 2030.”

He added that the U.K. is playing its part and that it is on track to cut emissions by 80 percent by 2050 and that it is playing its role internationally, providing nearly $6.53 billion of climate finance over five years as part of a commitment to spend 0.7 percent of gross national income on aid.

5. A global network for cities to tackle climate change

A global "Compact of Mayors" was unveiled at the summit, forming the world's largest initiatives to help cities combat climate change. Over 2,000 cities signed up including New York, Seoul, Paris, Johannesburg and Bogota, with the aim of harmonizing their targets and strategies.

228 of those cities have voluntary targets and strategies for greenhouse gas reductions which could avoid up to 2.1 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions per year.

6. First steps taken to capitalize the Green Climate Fund

At the summit it was announced that governments, investors and financial institutions will mobilize $200 billion by the end of next year to support climate action.

More than $2 billion was pledged for the Green Climate Fund, which aims to help developing countries in adaptation and mitigation measures.

Other moves include three major pension funds from North America and Europe announcing they would accelerate their investment in low-carbon investments by more than $31 billion by 2020. The insurance industry committed to double its green investments to $82 billion by the end of 2015 and announced it would increase the amount placed in climate smart investments to 10 times the current levels by 2020.

Commercial banks also said they will provide $30 billion in new climate finance by the end of 2015 by issuing green bonds and other innovative financing initiatives. Barclays also this week said it would invest a minimum of £1 billion ($1.63 billion) in green bonds by the end of 2015.

And finally... Leonardo DiCaprio tells UN summit, "I pretend for a living. You do not"

Addressing the UN Climate Summit, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hollywood actor and UN representative on climate change, said: “As an actor I pretend for a living, I play fictitious characters often solving fictitious problems, I believe that mankind has looked at climate change in that same way, as if it were a fiction, as if pretending climate change wasn’t real would somehow how make it go away. But I think we all know better than that now.”

"This disaster has grown beyond the choices individuals make," he added. "This is now about our industries and our governments around the world taking decisive large scale action.”

This post was originally published on 2Degrees Network and is reprinted with permission. Photo of UN Flag at NY Headquarters by Leonard Zhukovsky via Shutterstock.