Prime Minister Spoke With Björk On The Eve Of UN Climate Summit

As reported earlier, Jóhann Páll Jóhannsson, Member of Parliament for the Social Democratic party, has requested a written answer from the Prime Minister about her interactions with Björk and Greta Thunberg. According to RÚV, Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir only communicated with Björk and not Greta Thunberg on the eve of the United Nations climate conference in New York three years ago. They sent each other text messages and talked on the phone.

The Prime Minister says she has neither made any promises about a formal statement nor encouraged Björk to stop calling on the Nordic prime ministers to declare a climate emergency. This is stated in the Prime Minister’s answer to the question of Jóhann Páll about her relationship with Björk.

Björk has twice publicly criticised Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir. First, in an interview with the British newspaper the Guardian, where the singer said the Prime Minister had betrayed her and Greta Thunberg at the United Nations climate conference in New York three years ago.

Katrín says that she first received a text message from Björk on September 6. She answered that message the same day, and then they talked on the phone.

After that call, Björk sent several text messages to Katrín’s phone, which she replied with one message. All of these interactions were with Björk Guðmundsdóttir; the Prime Minister was never in communication with Greta Thunberg. Katrín says that in her communication with Björk, the singer thought it was important that the minister declared a state of emergency in climate matters on the part of Iceland and the Nordic countries. “The minister stated that she would discuss the matter with her fellow ministers, but no promises were made about a formal statement.”

Katrín recalls that in her speech she said that no one had any doubts that the world was facing a climate emergency. “After a discussion at the government level on climate issues, it was the result, after political consultation, that it would be better to let the deeds speak and emphasise achieving results with realistic and necessary actions in climate issues,” reads the statement.

It was considered better than approaching the subject with a statement that would be symbolic in nature and would not automatically affect actions against climate change.

Katrín says that the matter has been discussed in informal conversations between the Nordic prime ministers, and throughout 2019 the usefulness of such a statement has been discussed everywhere in the Nordic countries.

The answer states that Katrín did not encourage Björk and Greta to stop publicly challenging the Nordic prime ministers to declare a climate emergency. She informed that this matter had been discussed at the cabinet table.