Climate summit issues: oceans

The warming has penetrated to depths of more than a kilometre. In fact, such is the huge capacity of the oceans to absorb heat that 90 per cent of the extra warming so far caused by greenhouse warming of the atmosphere has ended up in the oceans.

One unambiguous consequence of the warming is rapid loss of ice across the Arctic Ocean, especially in summer. In the tropics there are concerns that more places may be vulnerable to hurricanes