“It’s lucky that we live in Iceland”: Nordic exceptionalism and narratives of climate in/vulnerability in contemporary Iceland

Speaker: Utsa Mukherjee (Education, Brunel University of London)
Series: Scott Polar Research Institute - HCEP (Histories, Cultures, Environments and Politics) Research Seminars

While climate vulnerability, that is the geographical distribution of risks on account of the climate crisis, is widely discussed; relatively little scholarly attention has been paid to how colonial fantasies of climate invulnerability underpin climate inaction and justify the maintenance of status quo (Weatherill, 2025). This paper contributes to the emergent body of critical scholarship on the politics of climate in/vulnerability through a focus on contemporary Iceland. Drawing on in-depth interviews with more than 80 participants from across Iceland, who recognise the reality of anthropogenic climate change and are committed to climate action, we show how Iceland’s geographical location is invoked by participants to advance ideas of relative climate in/vulnerability of the island. Analysed through prisms of critical feminist and decolonial politics, these narratives assume two main forms. One portrays Iceland as geographically ‘lucky’, thereby less vulnerable to climate risks which are displaced onto far-off places ‘at risk’. The other sees Iceland as not doing enough to combat climate change, thereby exposing itself to future risks from ‘elsewhere’. We argue that these narratives of climate invulnerability are produced at the intersection of colonial imaginaries of geographical risks and widespread acceptance of Icelandic exceptionalism that obviates critical examination of current status quo. Perceptions of climate invulnerability, understood to be outcomes of geographical location and ‘luck’, deflect attention away from the global historical processes that create uneven distribution of resources and risks between countries. These narratives also complicate the association between climate vulnerability and the Arctic by pointing to material and discursive diversities among Arctic nations especially those with perceived geographical advantages and those without.