According to RÚV the Presidential couple sailed out of the Argentinian port of Ushuaia yesterday and their trip will take them along the Drake Passage all the way to Antarctica. The party plans to go ashore three times, if weather allows. The trip ends on the 6th February.

The trip includes European and American scientists, the Canadian film director James Cameron, the American journalist Ted Turner and Christiana Figures, the president of the United Nations climate agency.

Al Gore’s climate change organisation, the Climate Reality Project, and National Geographic together organised the expedition.

A press release from Bessastaðir, the Icelandic head of state’s official residence, states that the goal of the expedition is to investigate the fast melting ice and to discuss how the nations of the world can best be encouraged to unite behind realistic and tangible action to fight global warming.

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson has become known as a strong climate change campaigner among world leaders and regularly gives speeches at environmental conferences.

The areas for which search licences are being offered lie in the high Arctic; far north of Iceland and not too far from Svalbard. They are north of Scoresbysund between 75 and 79 degrees north. The areas are being offered in two stages; the first in 2012 and the second in 2013. Applications from oil companies to be permitted to take part must be received by the 1st March and for specific location licences, by the 15th December. The exploration licences will last for 16 years, with the option for extension up to 30 years.

It is now ten years since oil exploration licences were first offered off western Greenland and the country has since offered a new area for exploration on average once every two years, Vísir.is reports. There are some 20 licences currently active, which are held by companies including Statoil, ExxonMobil, BP, ChevronTexaco, Shell and Japan Oil. Canada’s Husky Energy has announced it will drill two test wells in Greenlandic waters in summer 2013.

The first company to find oil and gas in Greenland was the UK’s Cairn Energy in the autumn of 2010 off Disko Island, 200 km north of Nuuk. The company put its programme on hold this winter, however, after drilling eight holes at great cost, without finding enough evidence of fossil fuels to make it worthwhile.

This disappointment does not seem to have dampened the spirits of other oil companies. The head of Greenland’s oil and minerals directorate, Jörn Skov Nielsen, told reporters that all of the world’s oil giants are interested in the east Greenland prospecting auction. Norway’s now-successful oil industry had a similarly disappointing start and the idea was nearly dropped after three years of expensive and fruitless searching.

There is strong opposition to Arctic drilling among environmental groups who say the fragile Arctic ecosystem is less able to cope than other regions and that a major oil spill would be next to impossible to clean up.

Jón Bjarnason

All fishing for halibut around Iceland will be banned from 1st January amid ongoing stock decline.

Icelandic Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Jón Bjarnason, signed a new law in the spring that would see all deliberate angling for halibut banned from the New Year; but that new law has this week been strengthened to include halibut caught by accident.

Starting next week Icelandic fishermen will be required to avoid catching halibut and any caught as by-catch must be thrown back alive instead of being taken ashore and sold. When halibut cannot be returned to the sea alive, all proceeds from any which are brought to shore and sold will go directly to ocean research, RÚV reported. Halibut are often brought aboard ship as by-catch.

The halibut harvesting ban comes after years of quota cuts and will be welcome news for the Icelandic Marine Research Institute, which has been warning of the halibut’s continued decline for years.

The halibut is Iceland’s biggest bony fish and can reach up to five metres in length. They are bottom fish, but are found all over the ocean. Halibut reach sexual maturity at 8-10 years of age, and can live up to 50 years.

Research suggests that the halibut stock around Iceland has been getting smaller every year in recent times.

The implications of the new law will have little impact on commercial fishing companies, which primarily target other species anyway — but its impact could be severe for the Westfjords tourism sector; which relies heavily on sea angling trips. The Westfjords’ popularity is spurred by the chance of catching a record-breakingly huge halibut.

As many as 18 executives from companies including BP, Shell and Statoil were ambushed by a group of suit-clad activists as they made their way to a genuine seminar, which was meant to be hosted by Greenland’s Raw Materials Directorate, at Nordatlantens Brygge in Copenhagen.

The undercover agents waited in the building’s lift for the businessmen before advising them that the meeting had moved to another room – one hired by Greenpeace. According to Politiken, rather than receiving information about how they could become involved in oil and gas exploration in the Arctic region, the group was then subjected to a 15-minute power-point presentation about environmental concerns.

Seemingly more interested in the hot drinks and croissants laid on by their generous hosts, it was not until the end of the presentation that the audience became aware that Greenpeace was calling the shots. The activists thanked the executives and left the building after the meeting, joining their more conspicuous yellow-clad comrades outside.

According to Marine Research Institute figures the volume of by-catch thrown back last year was lower than any of the last ten years. Generally less than one percent of cod caught have been thrown back since 1999; but last year it was less than half-a-percent. Traditionally more haddock has been wasted; but only one percent of the total catch last year.

A part of the waste can be put down to fish being thrown overboard because they are damaged in the fishing gear as they are pulled aboard, Vísir.is reported.

The figures for wasted by-catch have been on the way down for the last three or four years, the Marine Research Institute says.

Traditionally fish were thrown back, dead or dying, if they were of a non-target species, or if they were too small to be valuable. This practice has been banned in Iceland, however; and all fish caught should legally be brought to shore.

The increase in fishermens’ willingness to adhere to the law is largely down to money and the fact that Icelandic companies are better able to use fish than ever before. An example given is the opening of the Asian market for fish waste, including heads, tails and even guts, which are processed into food for people, instead of just going to fishmeal or fish oil production.

The firm’s Greenland campaign has cost it around GBP 400m (EUR 466m) in the last year alone, and it is now thought to be looking for potential partners to share the cost of future drills.

Simon Thomson, Cairn’s chief executive, attempted to gloss over the disappointment in a statement.”The first phase of Cairn’s exploration programme in Greenland has encountered oil and gas shows across multiple basins and now reservoir-quality sands in the Atammik block,” he said.

“Whilst we have yet to make a commercial discovery, we remain encouraged that all of the ingredients for success are in evidence. Evaluation of data across Cairn’s multiple blocks is ongoing against a backdrop of active farm-out discussions for selected areas,” he added.

Cairn massively reduced its stake in India after experts predicted that the Arctic region could hold around 20bn barrels of oil. Their drilling schedule, which is limited due to the region’s harsh seasons, was however frequently disrupted by Greenpeace protesters who are concerned about the potentially devastating effect of oil spill in the sensitive environment.

Vicky Wyatt, a senior campaigner for Greenpeace – which has since been banned from approaching Cairn vessels – said, “However the company tries to spin this, Cairn’s Greenland misadventures have been an unmitigated disaster from day one; the company squandering a fortune drilling one dry hole after another. These results show that the incredible technical, economic and environmental risks of operating in the Arctic simply aren’t worth it.”

Ögmundur says his decision not to grant Mr. Huang’s application for an exemption to the law barring non-EEA nationals from acquiring large plots of land in Iceland is in accordance with Icelandic law and rules. The size of the proposed purchase would have rendered the law pointless had an exemption been made, the minister said.

Ögmundur explained to RÚV after yesterday’s extended cabinet meeting that it was not an individual trying to buy Grímsstaðir á Fjöllum, but rather a limited company, largely owned by the individual: Huang Nubo. It was the opinion of the minister and the Ministry of the Interior, after careful consideration, that the company did not qualify for an exemption to the law. To provide the exemption in this case would have set such a huge legal precedent that non-EEA parties would have felt confident in gaining exemptions for almost any land purchases in the future, Ögmundur added. The land in question amounts to roughly 0.3 percent of Iceland’s entire land area.

Asked if his decision had been universally welcomed, or at least accepted, by his cabinet colleagues, Ögmundur dodged the question; saying it was a decision which fell solely on the Minister of the Interior to make.

Unsurprisingly the decision has split opinion within the two government parties. The larger Social Democrats were widely seen as being more pro- the potentially lucrative deal than Ögmundur’s Left Green Movement.

Northeast Iceland Social Democrat MP Sigmundur Ernir Rúnarsson was quick to criticise; describing the decision as “crazy”:

“I find this a crazy decision by the minister who, in his intransigence, is probably unfit to take this decision in light of the declarations he has made on the case in the lead up to the decision. Quite apart from that, there are at least 25 precedents for cases of this kind. This is a deplorable message to the people outside the capital region where there is a need to distribute the tourism industry better across the country and better across all times of year — and this is a devastating message to send out into the world to investors who are eyeing the country,” Sigmundur said.

He added that he has called for a special Social Democrat working group to go over the matter and he also said he wants to hold a meeting with Ögmundur Jónasson in person — adding that the matter is by no means over in his opinion.

Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (leader of the Social Democrats) also commented later in the day, describing Ögmundur’s decision as “a disappointment”.

Background to this story can be read here:

Chinese investor wants to build luxury country hotel in Iceland

North Iceland tourism officials support Chinese land purchase plan

Chinese investment in Iceland making world headlines

Icelandic ministers gearing up for Chinese investment battle?

Domestic Christmas trees still make up only a quarter of all real Christmas trees sold in Iceland.

Lodgepole pine is an increasingly popular choice of Christmas tree in Iceland, at the expense of the European spruce — although the latter is still the most popular. It is predicted that some 40,000 Christmas trees will be sold in Iceland over the coming month and that 10,000 of them will have been grown in the country, RÚV reports.

The state-run Iceland Forest Service is no longer the biggest domestic provider of yuletide trees and the organisation is only planning to provide 200-300 trees this year from its Vaglaskógur forest. The forest used to provide 1,500 Christmas trees a year at its peak.

“But it seems there are now others coming on to the market, like tree farmers and private forestry companies, especially in recent years,” says Sigurður Skúlason, a forest warden at Vaglaskógur.

“Tree farmers will surely become more, and stronger, on the market because the amount they can harvest is growing year-on-year.”

Conditions for cutting trees this year are said to be particularly good, as all forests are easily accessible and the lack of snow makes it easy to reach the trees.

“This is actually pretty special. People are able to gather a hundred trees in a few hours, whereas sometimes one has to struggle waist-deep through snow to mark the trees. Now it is possible to get around just like on a summer’s day,” Sigurður beams.

Icelandic tree farmers are currently in the first few years of a 15-year project to massively increase Icelandic Christmas tree production. While most Christmas trees for retail have traditionally been imported, it would in fact be possible to grow them all domestically.

After abandoning three dry exploration stations earlier in the year, shares in the company went up 5.2 percent following the announcement that minor hydrocarbon shows had been found at their AT7-1 drilling site.

“The news on the AT7-1 well is clearly encouraging and the most positive well result to date (even if it does not turn out to be a discovery) having encountered thick, good quality reservoir sands for the first time,” Richard Rose, analyst at Oriel Securities, told Reuters.

Cairn also said it found similar indications of oil and gas at another of its wells, adding that it will continue exploration in both until the end of this month.

The Edinburgh-based firm reduced its stake in India this year to concentrate on the Arctic region. Cairn’s activities have not been received well by environmental groups, however, who say an oil spill in the area would be devastating for the pristine and previously untouched region.

Drilling schedules have been disrupted on several occasions this year, mainly by Greenpeace which has now been given a court order to stay away from the Greenland platforms.

“The methanol here is made by taking carbon dioxide from the waste geothermal steam from the nearby HS Orka power station and then electricity from which we make hydrogen and these two are mixed together to create methanol,” says plant chief Benedikt Stefansson.

The methanol is to be mixed in to normal petrol to make a fuel suitable for existing petrol-driven cars.

“This is really the first time when we have mixed environmentally friendly Icelandic fuel into petrol so that we now have Icelandic fuel in petrol cars which is made from Icelandic energy. We hope that as time goes by people will be able to use this alone to reduce the amount of petrol being imported. But to start with we are making a low-level mixture which suits all petrol cars so that everybody can use this sort of mixed fuel in their cars,” Stefansson explained to Visir.is.

To begin with the new fuel is only available at the N1 station on Kringlumyrarbraut in Reykjavik. It is two kronur per litre cheaper than normal petrol. Stefansson believes, however, that the fuel’s biggest benefit is in reducing pollution and making cars a little kinder to the environment.

He explains that usually there are two sets of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere: waste CO2 from the geothermal power station and waste CO2 from car exhausts. The new fuel means the CO2 will only come from cars and the fuel will have travelled less distance to reach the cars in the first place.