The eight Arctic Council nations pledged on Friday to do more to combat climate change that is shrinking the vast frigid region, with countries trying to put aside disputes over issues like Russia's intervention in Ukraine.
Meeting in the Canadian town of Iqaluit, 300 km (200 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States pledged to work to address emissions of black carbon and methane.
Both are seen as particularly harmful to the Arctic, whose sea ice this year was the smallest in winter since satellite records began in 1979, according to U.S. data.
The region is warming at twice the rate of other parts of the globe, which both threatens traditional communities even as it opens up new sea lanes and vast oil and mineral resources.
The most tangible result of the Council meeting was a fresh nonbinding pledge to do more to fight black carbon and methane.
Emitted by diesel engines and wood-fired cooking stoves, black carbon settles on snow and ice, making it retain more warmth and melt faster. Methane is a greenhouse gas that, once released into the atmosphere, also causes the earth to retain heat.
The United States, which will chair the council for the next two years, hoped to adopt "an ambitious collective goal on black carbon" by the group's next meeting in 2017, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said.