Alþjóðlegur samráðsfundur um landnotkun í viðbrögðum við loftslagsvandanum, 8. maí 2008.

Ávarp Einars K Guðfinnssonar, sjávarútvegs-og landbúnaðarráðherra

á alþjóðlegum fundi í tengslum við landnotkun í viðbrögðum við loftslagsvandanum.

Third Informal Dialogue on the Role of Land Use, Land Use Change, including Forestry.

Chairman, Distinguished delegates.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you here in Iceland to this Third Informal Dialogue of the role of LULUCF, Land use Land use Change including Forestry in our reaction to the serious effects of climatic change.

There is no question that  negotiations on the content of the second commitment period starting from the year 2012 will be difficult and taxing. All nations have wishes and aspirations that they want to press for and will want appreciation from other nations of their particular situation at the negotiating table. This is equally true for Iceland as for all other countries. We have many aspects related to our mission profile that we like to bring forth.

In Iceland we are heavily dependent upon air traffic far north in the Atlantic ocean and cannot easily switch to other modes of transport as you undoubtedly experienced when you booked your journey to Iceland for this meeting.

Harvesting the rich fishing stocks around the country requires much energy in the often turbulent and taxing conditions of the Northern Atlantic. On the positive side we are blessed with large energy resources in geothermal regions and waterfalls that can be harnessed for the production of clean energy.

During the latter part of last century we developed these natural resources to the extent that we can now offer technical solutions to other nations. The mastery of these technologies together with judicious use of our fishing grounds as well as fishing and processing technologies is the main reason for the economic success of the country during the latter part of last century.

During the energy crisis in the early 70ties of last century we developed our geothermal resources for house heating to the extent that currently more than 90 % of our houses are heated with geothermal energy. We have therefore some unusual circumstances in relation to energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

It led to the results in the negotiations leading up to the Kyoto protocol that we were allowed to increase our emissions by 10 % compared to the baseyear of 1990 and also special provisions relating to expansion of heavy industries such as aluminium smelters that surely do emit greenhouse gasses but the energy production pertaining to it does not.

Land use is another area where our situation is rather special.

When the country was settled at the end of the ninth century a lush vegetation , mostly birch forests covered more than a quarter of the land surface but currently natural forests or remnants of these cover only between one and two percent. Our volcanic soils are coarse and susceptible to wind erosion when the vegetation cover is weakened and this has given rise to extensive soil erosion seriously diminishing the carrying capacity of the land and its ability to sustain agriculture.

You will be introduced to this situation in lectures and a field trip during your stay: I only want to draw your attention to the fact that we are now celebrating the centennial anniversary of organized forestry and revegetation efforts and thus have among the oldest public institutions in this field.

These are the Forestry service and the Soil Conservation Service that together with the Agricultural University and the Farmers association have led the quest for land improvement during the last century and all these institutions participate in the preparation of this meeting. There is a general and widespread support for the effort to revegetate the country with trees and other vegetation and to reclaim it to its former fertility which is inherent in the volcanic soils.

The fact that enhanced activity in this field can contribute to reduction in our net greenhouse gas emission is therefore  welcome and we are keen to explore all ways in which this can be realized.

I´m glad that Iceland has become a venue  for this third Informal Dialogue especially in view of the emphasis that we place on revegetation and afforestation in our long term commitments in the response to climatic change. I also note from the programme that you will be introduced to our newest and most modern Geothermal power station later today but we hope to contribute to our common quest through technical cooperation in this field and indeed Icelandic companies are already taking part in projects in other countries where geothermal energy will in the future replace fossil fuels as source of energy.

In this context it is worth noting that for three decades Iceland has operated a United Nations University Geothermal training programme with special hands on training for professionals working with geothermal energy in developing countries. This programme is a part of Icelandic engagement in development aid and it has graduated 380 professionals from 41 countries many of which are now leading specialists in their respective countries on the use of geothermal power.

Ten years ago a United Nations University fisheries training programme was started that is based on the same model and this year the  a programme on Land restoration that we hope will become equally successful as the third UNU training programme in this country. I welcome the first trainees who are here today for the opening part of your Dialogue and also for selected parts of the programme.

In his Book of Settlement written around eleven hundred Ari the wise Thorgilsson described the country that greeted the settlers to have been lush with woods from shore to mountain. Ari´s description is one of the most frequently sited lines from his book and constantly beacons to new efforts to restore the country to this green description.

The threat of Climate change now gives us a new extra urgent motive to work in this direction. Iceland may have special circumstances in the field of soil erosion and climate change, but I think we can all learn from each other. I think one of the most exciting global challenges today is to combine the tasks of combatting climate change and halting and reversing the degradation of the Earth’s green cover, which sustains agriculture and life itself. You have an important role in tackling this challenge and I wish you success in your deliberations during the coming days.