By Caio Koch-Weser

Last month, the world reached a landmark agreement on climate change in Paris. Last week, business leaders gathered in Davos for the World Economic Forum started breathing life into that deal.

The Paris Agreement delivered a clear and credible signal that the world economy is moving in a low-carbon direction. Now it’s time for companies and investors to make 2016 a ‘Year of Green Finance’ by putting efforts to reduce emissions on their priority list for investment and risk management.

Over the past few years, businesses have learned that strong climate action can deliver economic growth. Shares in companies taking the lead in this area outperformed the Bloomberg world index of top companies by almost 10 percent from 2010-2014.