Nearly 400 business leaders are gathering in Paris today, calling for a strong climate change agreement to help them implement the unprecedented set of cross-cutting corporate actions on climate.

The actions are being taken in key areas such as carbon pricing, finance, responsible policy engagement and science-based target setting.

In recent years, many business initiatives on climate change have emerged and have set the groundwork for a new, low-carbon economy.

Today, that low-carbon business sector is firmly established and more companies are joining the momentum, setting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets, building resilience in their operations and in the communities in which they operate, and publically reporting on their performance to take climate action and meet targets.

Institutional investors and other financial intermediaries such as insurers and banks have also become increasingly vocal and organized on climate change.

The disruptive effects climate change could likely have on the medium to long-term performance and stability of their portfolios.

The Lima-Paris Action Agenda (LPAA) focus on Business is convened as the high-level event of the Caring for Climate Business forum, organized by the UN Global Compact, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which have come together under the banner of the world’s largest business coalition for climate change, backed by 450 CEOs in 65 countries.

Since 2013, Caring for Climate signatories have reduced their carbon footprints by 12%.

High-level speakers, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, France Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy Ségolène Royal, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and the UN’s top climate change official Christiana Figueres, will join chief executives to advance the climate change agenda. 

Participants put forward an overview of all contributions by business and investors towards the COP21 UN climate change conference, highlighting commitments around concrete, cross-cutting solutions that impact the entire strategic management of a company.

The event will also include an interactive discussion on pricing the cost of carbon emissions between more than 80 chief executives from the business sector.

Companies want to accelerate business leadership on carbon pricing with a 2020 time horizon.