Over the next two weeks, the Conference of the Parties on Climate Change will take place in Paris – governments from countries all over the world will come together to discuss the next global agreement on climate change and what countries, businesses and wider society should be doing to play their part in keeping our wonderful planet below 2°C of warming.

Yesterday, crucial discussions began on how we can best protect forests for the long-term. These discussions are one of the really important parts of the negotiations taking place over the next two weeks in Paris about how to limit the impact of a changing climate on our planet and the people who are most at risk.

So why forests? They play a part in our everyday lives in many different ways – providing shade for your picnic, coffee for your morning caffeine hit or even acting as a climbing frame for your kids! They also play a role on a global scale by helping to regulate the earth’s temperature and act as a store for carbon that would otherwise affect the atmosphere. In fact, they are second only to the oceans in their ability to store carbon. And when they are destroyed it’s much harder for the earth to regulate its temperature.

Sky has taken the lead in helping to show what business can do to help tackle climate change. Sky Rainforest Rescue, our six-year partnership with WWF, has helped save one billion trees in the Amazon. Together we raised over £9 million, £4 million of which came from public donations which Sky has matched. We’ve inspired and engaged people on issues relating to deforestation, giving 7.3 million people a greater understanding of climate change. And we’re continuing to help the people in the Amazon to make a livelihood from the rainforest, making the trees, and the products that come from them, worth more alive than they are dead.

We’ve been working with WWF and the government in Brazil to share what we’ve learned about how to protect rainforests effectively. And to support an agreement, across the world, on protecting forests for the long-term. Through working together on projects like Sky Rainforest Rescue, Sky can join other business leaders in showing how it is possible to tackle climate change, before it’s too late.

For more information on what we're doing to reduce our environmental impact and inspire action on climate change visit our Bigger Picture website, or follow us on @skybiggerpic.