Icelandic President Halla Tomasdottir has envisioned the bright prospects of complementary cooperation with China on green energy and innovations.
In an interview with China Media Group (CMG) aired on Friday, Tomasdottir, who attended the Global Leaders' Meeting on Women in Beijing last month, said China's ability to scale and implement technological knowhow can help bring Iceland's clean-energy innovations to the world.
"Well, I think the obvious opportunity is in geothermal and taking that to scale in China and beyond. And there is a willingness and a memorandum to do so ahead. But I think there's also interesting opportunities around, for example, carbon capture, which is something that Iceland has also been pioneering," she said.
The Icelandic president expressed the hope that Iceland's partnership with China would help expand its innovation economy to the world.
"And I think there are increasingly coming about sustainable solutions in the innovation economy in Iceland, ranging from we are rethinking plastics in the algae or seaweed revolution; we're rethinking livestock feed and even food for humans through that seaweed revolution. Iceland is rich of this. It's a pioneering country that can pilot solutions but really is not equipped to take things to the world. China is. So I see lots of opportunities to work on innovations," she said.
Iceland, located in the mid-North Atlantic, is the second largest island in Europe boasting abundant fisheries, hydropower, and geothermal resources.
Icelandic president sees bright prospects of complementary cooperation with China on energy, innovation
