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What Icelanders want in environmental affairs

Published 23rd November 2009 - 7 comments - 846 views -

Just over a week ago, a unique meeting was held in Iceland. Dubbed “National Assembly” [Þjóðfundur in Icelandic] it was organized by several grassroots organizations and consisted of calling together a statistically-significant portion of the Icelandic nation to brainstorm and discuss a future vision for our country.

A total of 1,200 people were randomly chosen from the National Registry and sent an invitation to attend. An additional 300 people were hand-picked to receive invitations – including MPs, trade union leaders, activists, and other representatives from various sectors.

In the end, just over 1,200 people participated. They were divided into tables of nine, each with one facilitator that made sure everyone’s voice was heard. Specific methodology was used for the discussions, which were divided into a morning and afternoon session.

The morning session focused on determining a set of values that the meeting considered important to have as guidelines for the future. The most prominent by far were Honesty, Justice and Respect – perhaps not surprising, considering the major upheaval and restructuring that Icelandic society is going through at this time.

The afternoon session was devoted to discussing a number of major themes affecting our society – including The Environment. Those results were especially interesting to me, as they are so clearly in line with some of the issues I have been blogging about here in this forum.

Briefly, in terms of Environment, the National Assembly indicated that Icelanders, above all, want to a non-partisan comprehensive environment policy with emphasis on sustainable utilization. They also want the utilization of our natural resources to be transparent [as opposed to what I blogged about here], they want Iceland’s nature and resources to be owned by the Icelandic nation [as opposed to this here], they want eco-friendly public transport [see here], they would like Iceland to be the first country to power all cars and ships with domestic, green energy [here], and for Iceland to become a leader in the sustainable use of energy [see here].

In short, the National Assembly was a great forum and experiment in democracy, and we can only hope that our leaders and policymakers – many of whom attended – take the results and evident wishes of the Icelandic people to heart.

I took lots of footage from the Assembly with my Flip camera, but alas, have had some trouble processing and uploading the video. So in lieu of that, here are some photos I took, and finally a video created by, er, someone else.

[PS – a full summary of the results from the Icelandic National Assembly can be found here.]

[UPDATE!! - The Icelandic government announced this morning that it has set up a working group for Iceland's future advancement, and that this group will collaborate with the organizers of the National Assembly to ensure that the results will be followed through. wOOt!!]

The hall in Laugardalshöll

Looking down the rows of tables. Each table had a white balloon marked with a number.

Ants at work

At the two far tables were the industrious people who processed all the results. At the front, the press people.

The first results

The first results, up on a screen.

Eygló

Eygló, one of the chosen 1,200.

Looking across the hall

Looking across the assembly.

Delivering the results

Delivering the results to the boxes. Iceland's Finance Minister Steingrímur J. Sigfússon looking rather grim.

Dishing out the Icelandic lamb soup

Dishing out some Icelandic lamb soup at the end.

And finally, the video documentation:

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Comments

Aija Vanaga on 23rd November 2009:

This is really great event! Sounds like democracy .. and happy for decision government made to hear outcomes!

Daniel Nylin Nilsson on 23rd November 2009:

Interesting. Given the very small size of Iceland, you should have good conditions for working with direct democracy?

Adela on 23rd November 2009:

Great report.

I’m trying to remember another article I read about Iceland & democracy and will add it here, too.

Alda Sigmundsdottir on 24th November 2009:

Thanks, all. Daniel, yes I think we have all the right preconditions in this country to do so, although the small size of the community can also be a hindrance (croneyism, nepotism, etc.)

Joerg on 25th November 2009:

It should be good news, that the Icelandic government is willing to collaborate with the organizers of the National Assembly.

But at the same time parts of the government seem intent to ignore the request for a “non-partisan comprehensive environment policy with emphasis on sustainable utilization”.

At least, this is, what I read from the following news on Icelandreview about the PM of Iceland putting pressure on the Minister of the Environment Svandís Svavarsdóttir, not to annul the decision of the Icelandic National Planning Agency, which had come to the conclusion last March, that a universal environmental impact assessment is not necessary for the new Helguvik aluminium smelter.

http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=28304&ew_0_a_id=352379

This is not, what I would call transparent decision making and a non-partisan comprehensive environment policy. It’s just the way, it has always been in the past.

Alda on 25th November 2009:

Joerg - good point, but to be fair, everyone seems perplexed about the PM’s words, even members of her own party. She is being pressured to explain exactly what she meant - so far, I don’t believe she has.

However, it is very clear that there is a rift between the two parties in power - the Left-Greens are obviously a lot more environmentally conscious than the Social Democrats.

Paul Montariol on 29th November 2009:

The expression of the democracy counts much for me.
This is why I like the many referendums in Switzerland.
One should not be afraid of the voters.
It is a very good manners to learn the responsibility.

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