The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has travelled to the Arctic Circle, to witness first hand the devastating effects of climate change.

He made an impassioned plea to world leaders that they must take urgent action now.

Ban travelled from Oslo on Monday on a Norwegian ice breaker. He was making the trip to assess the impact of climate change on the region, which sits 1200 kilometres from the North Pole.

He visited research stations and met with scientists who briefed him on the latest science regarding ice-melting.

Jan G Winther, Director of Norwegian Polar Institute, said, "There's been a reduction of more than 11 per cent over the last thirty years, so there's an accelerating tendency especially in the summer," said Winther.

Ban was alarmed by the state of the local glaciers and said the effects of climate change were clearly visible and of great concern.

Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General, said, "I'm sending from this Arctic to all world citizens, particularly world leaders to draw an urgent attention to take action immediately, to preserve this planet earth, to preserve all what we can to help our succeeding generation to be able to live in a hospitable environment in a sustainable way. "

Meanwhile in Berlin, the World Wildlife Fund asked locals to put one thousand ice figures onto the steps of the concert house at the Gendarmenmarkt.

Regine Goventher, Climate Expert, WWF Germany, said, "We want to symbolize how fast the arctic is melting. It massively influences the increase of the sea level, it threatens millions of people and with this action we want to show how fast climate change is occurring."

The WWF says the melting of the Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets will possibly cause sea levels to rise more than one meter by 2100.

Next on Ban's agenda, is Thursday's opening of a high-level segment of the World Meteorological Organizations' Third World Climate Conference.

(CCTV September 3, 2009)