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In an announcement at the United Nations COP21 global climate talks in Paris, a total of 114 companies have joined a Science Based Targets initiative orchestrated in partnership with CDP, the World Wildlife Fund and the U.N. Global Compact.

Today at COP21 in Paris, LCTPi unveiled updates on each focus area. Here are the highlights from some key focus areas:

The Climate Summit for Local Leaders-hosted by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City and the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change-is the largest-ever convening of mayors, governors, and local leaders focused on fighting climate change. 

State leaders, delegates, business leaders, and other stakeholders convened in Paris for the U.N. Conference of the Parties (COP 21). Here are a few highlights from the final week: 

The Paris climate accord heralds a new era for the global economy, with a wide range of investors and industries now likely to seek ways to avoid carbon risks and adopt less carbon-intensive ways of doing business, experts say. Secretary of State John Kerry says the deal will be a net job creator and sends a powerful message to the marketplace. Nancy Pfund, managing partner of DBL Partners, agrees. "It's very hard to go backward from something like this. People are boarding this train, and it's time to hop on if you want to have a thriving, 21st-century economy," she says. 

Carbon pricing was in the spotlight at the climate talks. Post-Paris, these reports are essential for any business interested in emissions trading, carbon tax and more

On the pathway beyond Paris, corporate leadership will be defined by maximizing positive impacts, not minimizing negative ones. What does civil society say? 

As the COP21 climate change summit starts in Paris today, Unilever has announced it will become "carbon positive" in its operations by 2030.

As the UN climate talks in Paris near, 68 additional companies have joined the White House-led American Business Act on Climate Pledge.

Between Indonesia's massive forest fires, the official approval of REDD+ at climate talks in Paris, and the establishment of several major national parks, there was plenty to get excited about in the world of rainforests during 2015. What's in store for 2016?

An international team of scientists has proposed a series of deadlines by which humanity must take serious action to combat climate change if it is to meet the ambitious goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, and stave off potential disaster. The team behind the study hopes that these points of no return will help inform debate, and spur leaders to take action to mitigate the threat of climate change while there is still time.

ExxonMobil, Chevron and Occidental Petroleum join ten other major fossil fuel producers that say they recognise the goals of the Paris climate deal

Countries committed under the Paris Agreement to a broad goal of limiting global temperature rise to under 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F), ideally 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F). The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes it clear that half a degree of warming makes a huge difference, and 1.5 degrees C is the safer target.

Potent, climate-warming gases are being emitted into the atmosphere but are not being recorded in official inventories, a BBC investigation has found. Air monitors in Switzerland have detected large quantities of one gas coming from a location in Italy. However, the Italian submission to the UN records just a tiny amount of the substance being emitted. Levels of some emissions from India and China are so uncertain that experts say their records are plus or minus 100%.

Just weeks after the UN Secretary General released a report detailing sluggish progress on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), efforts are underway to bolster support for their widespread adoption. Gold Standard - a standard and certification body established by the WWF - has launched the Gold Standard for the Global Goals, a new standard to quantify, certify and maximize the contributions of climate and development interventions toward the Paris Climate Agreement and the SDGs

The World Wildlife Fund has published a new report, Eating for 2 Degrees - New and Updated Livewell Plates, which outlines how simple steps, such as reducing red meat consumption, could help to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. The report shares the minimal dietary changes needed to meet the Paris Agreement commitment to keep global warming below 2°C.

California Governor Jerry Brown joined forces with Michael Bloomberg to launch America's Pledge, an initiative aimed at tracking and reporting progress made by U.S. states, cities, and businesses on reducing GHG emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.

The Madhya Pradesh government in India spearheaded an environmental campaign last weekend in which some 1.5 million volunteers planted 66 million trees in 12 hours along the banks of the Narmada River. India, the world's third-largest generator of carbon emissions, has committed under the Paris Agreement to increase its forests by 12% by 2030.

A palm oil supplier to Mars, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever is destroying rainforests in Papua, Indonesia, a new investigation by Greenpeace International has revealed. Satellite analysis suggests that around 4,000 hectare of rainforest were cleared in PT Megakarya Jaya Raya concession between May 2015 and April 2017-an area almost half the size of Paris.

President Trump signed an executive order that targets key elements of U.S. climate strategy, including the Clean Power Plan, emissions rules for new fossil-fuel power plants, methane regulations, and more. It is still unclear how the U.S. will engage around the Paris Agreement.