Big business: are deforestation goals at risk of failing?

Companies are starting to see the clear risks from production of commodities such as timber, soy, beef and palm oil, but it is unclear whether they will act

The Paris climate talks have opened with a promise to the world: to secure a historic agreement between nations to bring the runaway train of global warming to a halt. The world's forests play a key role in fulfilling this promise.

When we keep forests standing, we have an invaluable asset in our fight against climate change. As writer Sam Knight has already highlighted in the Guardian: "There are three trillion trees on Earth and they are perfectly made to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere." When they fall, we make the task of keeping within an ever-diminishing carbon budget harder. And their value to our environment, economy and society does not end there.