COPENHAGEN (AFP) -Environment ministers from 22 countries meeting in Greenland to discuss the devastating effects of global warming called for immediate action to stop climate change as the four-day meeting wrapped up.

Representatives of Brazil, Canada, China, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa as well as the United States and several European countries were invited to Ilulissat, on Greenland’s east coast, to see first hand the effects of global warming on the Arctic environment.

Talks focused on future international climate cooperation after 2012 when the first phase of the Kyoto protocol ends.

“The conference enabled us to improve our joint understanding of the key issues of climate change, and to raise innovative ideas about how to proceed,” Danish Environment Minister Connie Hedegaard told reporters.

“Even if targeted and ambitious actions were taken immediately, global warming would still continue for hundreds of years,” Hedegaard said.

“There was a great desire to push ahead, to do something,” said French Environment Minister Nelly Olin, noting that “everyone was aware of the urgent problems to be resolved and the need to act.”

“The blaming games must end, because they lead nowhere,” the Danish minister stressed, calling on all governments to present “credible visions” on how they can help fight climate change.

A recent study, the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, showed that the Arctic has been heating up twice as fast as the rest of the Earth over the past decade due to the so-called greenhouse effect.

Less than a century from now, Arctic ice could melt completely during the summer, threatening many species and the lifestyle of the indigenous Inuit population, the study warned.