Thank you for having me here, and I want to congratulate you and your country on the very successful Presidency of the Council of Europe. I am very much looking forward to this Summit. It comes at a very relevant time – we have discussed it. Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine raises fundamental questions about democracy, about the rule of law and about the human rights. I want to particularly thank you for putting the questions of justice for Ukraine and the accountability of Russia at the heart of your Presidency. This is very important. I also want to thank you and the people of Iceland for the generosity and the support you are constantly giving to Ukraine. As far as I know, you welcomed almost 3,000 refugees with open arms. You donated vital supplies and energy equipment. You are channelling important economic support to Ukraine. So, many thanks for that.
We have an excellent bilateral cooperation, and I could talk now about 10 minutes about everything that is going well – but we do not have the time for that. Indeed, turning to the bilateral relations, there are a few topics on which we went a bit more in depth – besides the excellent cooperation we have and the seamless work that takes place between our respective teams. Of course, the first and overriding topic is climate change and how to fight climate change. Iceland knows that better than anyone. We are both concerned about the impact and convinced about the need that we do have to act.
You have decided to do something about it with your ambitious plan to become carbon-neutral by 2040. I am deeply impressed that already today almost 100% of the electricity production in Iceland comes from renewables. You know that we also have ambitious plans to reach climate neutrality by 2050 and there, of course, to develop renewables as much as possible. We want to reach more than 42% of our energy consumption through renewables by 2030. So we must address emissions, and that is the reason why we have started the Emissions Trading System. The Emissions Trading System is market-driven – it is very successful. But of course, we have to take into account the specific situation of Iceland.
And I think we have found a very good common understanding – as you said, still subject to some fine-tuning. But in our case, this is of course that we need the approval of the Member States. But I am happy that we really found a solution that is compatible with your specific situation, that is compatible with the integrity of our Single Market and, most importantly, that is also respecting the long-term goals of climate protection.
This is basically it. There were smaller things we were also discussing. But I want to thank you again for the excellent cooperation and for your outstanding Presidency of the Council of Europe.
