Iceland to submit climate plans for UN global deal

Iceland will submit its national plans to combat climate change this week, according to an announcement by the country’s environment minister, and is set to follow the same set of targets proposed by the EU and Norway.

Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Leader of the Left Green Movement, said on Thursday that ambitious emissions reduction plans were needed urgently with the key UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Paris in December.

Katrín said: “One black report follows another and we are already noticing changes in the weather patterns which have a massive impact on the balance of life here in Iceland—as well as people living everywhere else in the world.”

The 21st session to the Conference of the Parties (COP21) will run from November 30 to December 11 and a global climate deal is expected to be signed by all UN member states.

In the build to the summit, all UN member states are supposed to submit Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) pledges to reduce GHG emissions to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The EU and Norway have proposed that greenhouse gas emissions be cut by 40 per cent on 1990 levels by 2030.

Sigrún Magnúsdóttir, Minister for the Environment, citied climate change as among the biggest issues of the modern age and said: “Five ministries have been working tirelessly. It will be submitted to the government before parliament goes home next week,” the minister said.

She said that Norway has decided to follow the European Union’s main targets and that Iceland will most likely follow suit.