“People are going to be scratching their heads and saying, ‘Wow, that’s really sensitive.’”

Ken Buesseler of Woods Hole on a new finding that if the ocean’s main carbon-recycling zone sank just 24 metres, seas would soak up significantly more CO2.

“When you decide how you invest money for climate adaptation, you should quickly come to the conclusion that ecology provides the best bangs for bucks – and that’s even without taking into account the added benefits of saving biodiversity.”

Pavan Sukhdev – an Deutsche Bank economist on secondment at UNEP – has translated damage to coral reefs and forests into multi-trillion-dollar financial losses.

“This is not something Japan will do on its own. The premise is an agreement that includes other countries such as China and India.”

Katsuya Okada, secretary-general of the Democratic Party of Japan, on the party’s campaign pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 25% below 1990 levels by 2020.

“The results should set at rest any apprehensions that India’s greenhouse gas emissions are poised for runaway increase over the next two decades.”

Government-backed report projects that India’s emissions will more than triple by 2031, to between 4 billion tonnes and 7.3 billion tonnes.