At least ten countries pledged to halt glacier melt and thawing permafrost in the Arctic at a conference on Monday.
Foreign ministers and officials from the European Union, Japan and United States, signed a joint statement during the State Department-devised Glacier summit in Anchorage, Alaska.
They endorsed mounting scientific research documenting retreating sea ice, set out an action plan to curb black carbon emissions and called for more research to measure the advance of permafrost and wildfires.
But China and India did not sign the document, somewhat limiting its impact.
“Climate change poses a grave challenge in the Arctic and to the world,” the declaration read.
“But these challenges also present an imperative for cooperation, innovation, and engagement as we work together to safeguard this vital region and to inform the world why the Arctic matters to us all.”
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On Tuesday, 4 June, seven foreign ministers, 19 ambassadors, several ministers and more than 200 experts met in Berlin to act on climate security risks at the Berlin Climate and Security Conference. "Achieving the international climate targets is the new imperative of our foreign policy”, the German Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, said in his opening speech. This is the aim of the Berlin Call for Action which was presented at the conference.
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