Prime Minister of Iceland Katrín Jakobsdóttir attended the One Planet Summit in Paris yesterday, where she announced her government’s plan to make Iceland carbon-neutral by 2040. RÚV reported first.

Katrín wrote in a Facebook post yesterday: “It was a pleasure to announce the Icelandic government’s goal of a carbon-neutral Iceland not later than 2040 at a meeting of national leaders in Paris today. It was well-received as an ambitious goal which makes a difference in the global climate debate.”

Katrín stated the number of leaders present at the summit underlines how important climate change has become on the international agenda. Many countries, she says, plan to exceed the goals of the Paris climate agreement. At the summit, Katrín participated in panel discussions with Prime Minister of the UK Theresa May and Prime Minister of Portugal António Costa.

Katrín was asked on Rás 2 whether there is reason for optimism that nations will be able to achieve their climate goals. “I think actually that there is a huge amount of work to be done to achieve these goals because of course it involves both reducing emissions and applying CO2 capture,” she answered, adding “these issues are discussed in a totally different way now than a few years ago both in Iceland and abroad. There is a big change in how the world’s nations and we among them have come to realize how important this is.”