The five-day World Ocean Conference has ended in Indonesia's Sulawesi Island with a focus on the state of the oceans, the role they play in the world's changing climate and the negative effects of climate change on the world's oceans.

The United Nations took a step towards a new climate treaty on Friday by publishing the first draft negotiating texts to help bridge a "great gulf" between options for rich nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, is a crucial task. Current measures include using technology to improve energy efficiency, planting forests to store carbon and promoting nutrient recycling so that carbon can be used to enrich the soil. The first two techniques are far more costly than nutrient recycling.

Forests that today soak up a quarter of carbon pollution spewed into the atmosphere could soon become a net source of CO2 if Earth