The eight Arctic Council nations pledged on Friday to do more to combat climate change, which is shrinking the vast frigid region, and tried 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 winter sea ice this year was the smallest 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 threatens traditional communities even as it opens up new sea lanes and vast oil and mineral resources.