Eight Arctic countries agreed a plan to counter a rapid thaw of the region on Wednesday with indigenous peoples accusing Washington of blocking stronger action meant to slow global warming. The United States, Russia, Canada and the five Nordic states, which all have territories in the Arctic, agreed to encourage "effective measures" to adapt to climate change without making any clear promises. Ministers noted "with concern" a report by 250 scientists this month warning that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average, threatening to wipe out species like polar bears by 2100 and undermining indigenous hunting cultures. "We all need to intensify efforts against pollution in the Arctic," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the one-day meeting in Iceland. Indigenous peoples, some of nations and environmentalists had wanted the ministers to urge sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from cars and factories blamed for a warming that could melt the ice around the North Pole in summer by 2100. "In terms of what the planet needs, this is far from enough," said Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, which says it represents 155,000 people in Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia. Still, she said that a seven-page policy document was more than she had expected from the consensus-based Arctic Council. Washington said it would not sign up for caps in emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. The United States is the only one of the eight outside the 128-nation U.N. Kyoto protocol on curbing global warming.
