Iceland review - 2016, Qupperneq 57

ICELAND REVIEW 55
difficult to answer precisely what you think about a project like
that. But at the moment the cons definitely overrule because it
gives incentives to dig deeper into the places we have and also
because of the transmission system.”
PROTECTING THE HIGHLANDS
Iceland’s highlands are considered one of the last remaining
wildernesses in Europe. What makes the area particularly
unique, Guðmundur says, is the contrast in nature found in the
highlands. “You have vegetated oases in the midst of deserts,
you have glaciers and volcanoes scattered around, you have
really unique geological features.” Guðmundur highlights
that according to surveys, over 80 percent of tourists mention
nature as the reason for visiting Iceland and over 90 percent
of visitors to the highlands say that manmade structures such
as power plants, power lines, reservoirs and hotels do not fit
into their idea of wilderness. “I think we need to listen to this
because this is very valuable data on how we present our coun-
try, both for ourselves ... but also for tourism, which is one of
our biggest industries now, and especially for our image. We
have a saying in Icelandic: ‘Don’t slaughter the milking cow.’”
Guðrún agrees. “What I fear is that we would increase the
pressure to harness a natural resource whose value we are just
beginning to fathom. We have to understand that we have no
idea of the value of untouched wilderness in the next decades,
let alone in coming centuries. It is only going to increase
because it is going to be more and more rare. We are playing
with a resource which we owe to future generations.” She says
that only a generation or two ago, wilderness was considered
threatening or intimidating and not something that had any
monetary value.
At a press conference during the Iceland Airwaves music
festival in November, author Andri Snær Magnason and musi-
cian Björk emphasized the potential environmental impacts of
the IceLink project. “When we see headlines like this: ‘Iceland
has lots of volcano power, free and environmentally-friendly,’
we get a bit scared because we’ve seen the hype before and
we’ve seen the damage that has to be done to harness all this
energy,” he said. “We are kind of worried if the world thinks
they are getting ‘volcano energy’ from Iceland, unattached to
any place, or any heritage, or any natural consequences.” Björk
said that international media attention on the subject has been
important to help push the issue in Iceland. “It’s often in a
small country like Iceland if you get foreigners supporting our
views, it kind of mirrors back here to the people in power and
they listen to the crazy artists of their own island.”
Environmentalists want to see the whole of the highlands
protected as a national park. “Then we can start managing
the area, taking into account the wishes of different groups,
but with nature conservation as number one. A national park
means a place for people to enjoy, but also creates a holistic
management plan including how we’re going to manage tour-
ism,” Guðmundur says.
Björgvin agrees that the environmental aspect needs to be
further discussed. “This is certainly a major topic and part of
the political discussion as to what do we want to do with the
energy resources here and perhaps do we just not want to use
the energy resources—and that’s a view that a lot of people
have.”
ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS
Björgvin, however, stresses that, financially, Iceland might ben-
efit greatly from such a project. “The Icelandic nation happens
to own Landsvirkjun, so with more value generation that’s
more money that we would pay to the coffers of the Icelandic
government and that money could come to good use, be it
hospitals, the education system, or other government services
we depend upon.”
Like Árni, Björgvin says that it helps to compare the fisher-
ies industry in Iceland to the energy industry. “The fisheries
industry wants to have access to as many markets as it can,
that’s the mantra there because they want to sell to the highest
paying markets ... The interconnector is, simply put, access
to a new market for Icelandic power, just like Icelandic cod
is sold all over the world, we want Icelandic power to be sold
all over the world, too. This is how we make the most of our
energy resources by having access to more markets. Iceland is
a resource-based economy. Our economy is based on fishing,
tourism and energy—that is how we have to make our living
here so we have to make the most of these resources in order
to buy all the rest of the things we need.”
David Cameron described the project during his visit to
Iceland as a potential “win-win situation” which could provide
Iceland with “important export earnings while providing clean
and green energy to the United Kingdom as part of building
a strong relationship.”
Guðrún, however, is concerned about discussions that
Landsvirkjun could be privatized. “I’m just worried that once
we start exporting, we will lose control of our resource.”
The Prime Minister of Iceland has said prerequisites for the
project going ahead include that jobs are created in Iceland, in
particular in the regional areas. Guðrún says the argument that
we need to invest in power plants to provide economic growth is
nonsense. “How many jobs did Kárahnjúkar create? The work-
force was mostly imported. We will not create many jobs by
harnessing energy for export. We need a diversified economy.”
Björgvin emphasizes that there is an increasing demand for
energy within Iceland and should the interconnector not go
ahead, there would still be plenty of other opportunities for
energy projects domestically. “There are still a lot of power
intensive companies who want to come to Iceland and build
their factories here, so we don’t particularly worry about there
not being a build out [of the interconnector],” he said.
Guðrún is among those to argue that before Iceland starts
exporting its energy, it should use it for important domestic
projects such as getting the country’s overland transport and
fishing fleet off fossil fuels. “Let’s not assume the highest value
for this resource is to export it, let’s assume that its highest
value might be in keeping it here ... I would say hold your
horses, don’t open the faucet and let our resources flow over to
Europe while we have the potential to use them for something
much more valuable here in Iceland.” *
ENERGY