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Climate Change Is Reshaping Geopolitics

Iceland's Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir

By Rik Goverde and Tom Nice

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Climate change is reshaping geopolitics as sea-ice opens up, creating new shipping lanes and bringing strategic competition to Iceland - with Europe, the US, China and Russia all involved.

Speaking exclusively to Newsweek, the Prime Minister of Iceland, Kristrún Frostadóttir, highlighted how climate change is reshaping the country’s reality – and that of the entire region.

"If you're focused on the Arctic, you can't not talk about climate policy," Iceland's Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir told Newsweek. Iceland's economy depends on healthy oceans as the Gulf Stream helps keep the island liveable. So climate change in the region ‘hits close to home’, she said on the Climate Week NYC Daily Show, produced by Newsweek and Hi-Impact in collaboration with Climate Week NYC.

The Prime Minister intends to raise the issue as leaders gather in New York this week for the 81st UN General Assembly and Climate Week NYC. Wars and regional tensions are taking much of the attention, the Prime Minister said, and she wants climate in the room.

With her remarks, she was almost one-on-one aligned with what Ed Miliband, UK Secretary of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs said. "Climate breakdown must be an issue for foreign ministers and prime ministers, as well as energy and climate ministers. The generals, not just the green campaigners," he said during the Opening Ceremony of Climate Week NYC.

Iceland's contribution to that conversation is of the geothermal kind, Frostadóttir said. In the 1960s and 70s, Iceland was a relatively poor country. After the 1970s oil shock, it built a geothermal heating grid rather than absorb the cost of volatile oil and gas prices. Frostadóttir said: "A lot is possible when a crisis hits."

The Prime Minister wants climate policy that people can feel in daily life: lower transport and heating costs, more resilience and more jobs.

Because resilience gets built after a crisis, she said. That's when efforts go into preventing the next one. Iceland is still improving its geothermal technology – and is happy to share it. "We're hoping to bring it to the world, like we've done in the past few decades."

Climate envoy of Kenya, Ali Mohamd, focused on his own region when speaking to Newsweek. The weather phenomenon El Nino will impact countries in Africa and other vulnerable countries hard, he warned. And it will need support in coping with that fallout.

With COP32 set to be hosted in Ethiopia next year, agendas for the climate event are starting to be shaped, Mohamed hinted. Kenya’s Head of State, Willaim Ruto, is on town for the UN General Assembly, which is held at the same time as Climate Week NYC. “We’re going be hosting a discussion among the African group of countries on how to prepare for the upcoming COP, as well as the COP that is going to be hosted in a year's time.”

One of those agenda items could very well be clean cooking, Mohamed said – an estimated 1 billion people are cooking on wood and coal, which is highly pollution and very unhealthy. “So, Africa's voice will certainly be heard.”

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