On the glacier
German President and AWI Director visit Iceland
State visit focused on climate change, environmental protection and sustainable energy
[13. June 2019]
Together with a group of climate experts, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Iceland from 12 to 14 June. Prof Antje Boetius, Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), accompanied the President at his request, in order to discuss global climate change and Germany’s contribution to climate protection.
On the second day of the President’s state visit, the agenda focused on climate change, environmental protection, and sustainable energy. Accompanied by a group of climate experts, President Steinmeier and his wife Elke Büdenbender first inspected a geothermal power plant and, at the LAVA Centre in Hvolsvöllur, learned about Iceland’s current approaches to its volcanoes and emergency management. They subsequently took a tour of the glacier Sólheimajökull. Moving on to the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago, they visited a seawater heat and power plant, the fishing company VSV, and a girls’ football tournament.
“On that day we’ll be intensively focusing on the impacts of climate change, e.g. during a tour of Sólheimajökull glacier together with some of Iceland’s future climate experts, who hail from a 7th-grade class in Hvolsvöllur, but also with one of Germany’s most respected climate researchers, Antje Boetius from the Alfred Wegener Institute, who will accompany me on this journey. In terms of climate protection and sustainable energy solutions, there’s a great deal that we could learn from Iceland,” said President Steinmeier prior to the state visit in an interview with the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið.