Climate change tops agenda as Iceland heads to elections

By EGILL BJARNASON
Associated Press

REYKJAVIK , Iceland (AP) — Climate change is top of the agenda when voters in Iceland head to the polls for general elections on Saturday, following an exceptionally warm summer and an election campaign defined by a wide-reaching debate on global warming. All nine parties running for seats at the North Atlantic island nation’s Parliament, or Althing, acknowledge global warming as a force of change in a sub-Arctic landscape. But politicians disagree on whether Iceland should take more urgent action to help curb climate change, or capitalize on it as an opportunity for economic growth. Polls suggest Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir’s Left Green Party could face a poor outcome, ending the current coalition.