UN chief 'alarmed' at Arctic glacier melt

Ban said world leaders had a "moral political responsibility" to safeguard the future of the planet.

"I am very much alarmed and surprised to have seen these glaciers all worn," he told journalists as he visited the Ny-Aalesund climate change research station in the Svalbard archipelago, located 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) from the North Pole.

"Unless we take urgent action to stem this trend, we maybe virtually ice-free by 2037, even by 2030," he said.