Ávarp Guðlaugs Þórs Þórðarsonar umhverfis-, orku- og loftslagsráðherra á ráðstefnu um málefni freðhvolfsins - Ávarpið er á ensku

It is fit to hold this Symposium here in Iceland. We are the only country in the world that takes its name from the cryosphere – as far as I know, at least.

There is not much visible evidence of the cryosphere here in Reykjavík in August; as it should be at the end of summer. Still, on a good day one can see the white top of Snæfellsjökull here from the Harpa Conference Centre. Snæfellsjökull is a cone-shaped volcano with a glacial crown; and the entrance to the centre of the Earth, according to the famous novel by Jules Verne. The glacier has shrunk noticably in recent decades. It is one of the icons of Iceland, and it may be gone a few decades by now.

It will not be alone. Dozens of small glaciers have vanished in Iceland in recent decades. Outlet glaciers are retreating. Almost every year now sees less ice in Iceland.

The retreat of ice and snow is one of the most visible signs of climate change on our planet. It is also one of the most worrying. Melting glaciers mean rising seas. Our neighbour, the Greenland ice sheet, could contribute to 7 meters of global sea level rise. That is enough to doom many of the world‘s greatest cities and the homes of hundred of millions of people. It will take a long time to melt the Greenland ice cap, but the time may be close when its demise becomes irreversible.

This points to the gravity of human-induced climate change. Some of the changes may feel slow on a human timescale, but we may be kicking off an unstoppable cascade of damaging changes, that will take centuries to unfold. We still have time to avert the worst scenarios, but it is running short.

We need more cryosphere science. There is much we do not know, from the likelihood of Antarctic ice shelves collapsing, to the effect of glacial melt on the Gulf stream. Better science is important for designing policy.

But we know enough to see that we must act. Outright climate skepticism is rare nowadays. The evidence is simply too overwhelming. The signs are everywhere: Climate change is not science fiction, it is here and now. But there is not enough urgency. Some may feel that 1,5-2 degrees warming is not much, and that we can probably fine-tune the Earth‘s thermostat with tomorrow‘s technology, if we overshoot those numbers by a degree or two.

This is not the case. We can not be complacent. And this is where cryosphere experts need to get the message across: Overshooting the Paris goals carries huge risks. The risk of triggering the collapse of monster ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland is one example. Permafrost is a another example. It is retreating, and releasing methane as it melts; thereby threatening still more warming. The message of the cryosphere must be heard and understood, and not only by experts, but by policy makers and the general public.

In Iceland, we have aimed to make our retreating glaciers a living classroom on the effects of climate change. In few places can you see the impact of change so clearly. We have educational exhibitions at the Vatnajökull National Park and other places. We hope that tourists and school children alike take the message to heart, and push for action.

We have also taken this message to the wider world. In our recent Chairmanship of the Arctic Council we put an emphasis on the cryosphere, as well as plastic pollution in the Arctic.

We need to act on the message from science. Iceland has a good story to tell in many ways, when it comes to climate mitigation. We get our electricity and heating 100% from renewables. We are planting trees and reversing soil erosion. We are pioneering a unique and promising method of carbon capture and storage, where carbon dioxide is turned into minerals stored in basaltic rock.

Still, we are not doing enough. The world is not doing enough. We need to stop subsidies of fossil fuels. We need to conserve forests and wetlands and plant more trees. Above all, we need to speed up the transition to clean energy. We need to do this fast. If we wait for the ice to leave Iceland, we will have missed our chance. We must and we will not allow that to happen.

I thank the Met Office and other organizers of this Symposium, I thank you all for being here, and I wish you good days and fruitful discussions.

Thank you.