Prime Minister David Cameron has said that the key to tackling climate change is to put initiatives into “profit-making terms”.

Mr Cameron said there is a “compelling economic case to be made for fighting climate change that is barely out of the blocks yet”.

Writing in The Observer newspaper, the Prime Minister said the “green effort should not be downgraded or swept under the carpet because of spending cuts and austerity”.

He said all countries could make “massive gains from a green economy” and highlighted his own government’s Capital Markets Climate Initiative, a plan to help trigger a new wave of green investment in emerging economies and make the City of London the global capital of the green investment sector.

Mr Cameron also reiterated his intention for the coalition to be the “greenest government ever” and talked up the Green Deal as an example of this commitment.

This morning, on the first day of the UN Climate Change talks in Cancun, Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said: “We’ve got this next fortnight to get the global climate talks back on track.”

He conceded that “we won’t get a full binding deal in Cancun”, but added: “People and businesses around the world will be watching and expecting to see us prepare the ground.

“This means making progress on issues such as financial assistance to help developing countries deal with climate change, tackling deforestation, bringing the promises made in the Copenhagen Accord into the formal UN process, and agreeing a system to make sure countries live up to their commitments to take action on emissions.

“The Mexican hosts have done their homework, they’ve gone to enormous lengths to build trust and confidence among the countries, and there’s every reason this morning for all negotiators to roll up their sleeves and get talking.”