Iceland

Excellencies,

We, the undersigned institutions, experts, and stakeholders committed to systemic foresight, responsible innovation, and sustainable resilience governance, respectfully submit this appeal for the formal recognition and institutional support of the National Working Group for Iceland (NWG–Iceland) and the Nexus Ecosystem (NE), developed by the Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI).

Iceland today faces interconnected systemic risks:
Glacier retreat, volcanic and seismic hazards, sea-level rise, extreme Arctic weather events, biodiversity loss in marine and Arctic ecosystems, and emerging Arctic governance and sustainability challenges.
These vulnerabilities are directly aligned with the foresight imperatives outlined in the Pact for the Future, requiring sovereign, anticipatory, and innovation-centered resilience strategies.

While Iceland leads globally in renewable energy, Arctic policy dialogue, and sustainable marine management, further opportunities exist to strengthen systemic foresight infrastructures, anticipatory governance systems, and sovereign digital public goods platforms.

The National Working Group for Iceland (NWG–Iceland) addresses these systemic needs by:

• Embedding systemic foresight, disaster risk governance, and anticipatory policy innovation into national Arctic, climate resilience, and sustainable development frameworks;

• Strengthening early warning systems, dynamic scenario simulation infrastructures, and systemic foresight platforms aligned with the operational mandates of the Emergency Platform;

• Mobilizing distributed expertise across ministries, Arctic governance bodies, research institutions, energy innovators, private sector leaders, and civil society organizations;

• Institutionalizing sustainability and systemic foresight governance frameworks aligned with the Declaration on Future Generations.

NWG–Iceland’s operational foundation is the Nexus Ecosystem (NE) — a sovereign, cloud-agnostic, open-access digital public goods platform that:

• Provides disaster risk modeling, anticipatory policy simulation infrastructures, innovation ecosystem foresight mapping, and sustainable development governance monitoring systems;

• Embeds responsible digital governance standards, cybersecurity resilience protocols, sovereign data protections, and AI ethics aligned with the Global Digital Compact;

• Supports the development of holistic resilience, sustainability, and well-being indicators aligned with the Beyond GDP Initiative, reinforcing Iceland’s leadership in systemic foresight and sustainable governance.

Together, NWG–Iceland and the Nexus Ecosystem provide Iceland with sovereign, scalable, and future-ready infrastructures to operationalize systemic foresight, sustainable innovation ecosystems, and resilient governance.

Accordingly, we respectfully request:

1. Formal Recognition of NWG–Iceland as a national and international platform advancing systemic disaster risk foresight, anticipatory governance innovation, sovereign digital resilience, and sustainable development leadership under the Pact for the Future;

2. Institutional and Financial Support, enabling NWG–Iceland’s full integration into multilateral resilience financing frameworks, anticipatory governance hubs, and sovereign digital public goods initiatives;

3. Recognition of the Nexus Ecosystem (NE) as a sovereign digital public good essential for Iceland’s disaster risk intelligence infrastructures, anticipatory policy simulation platforms, innovation ecosystem monitoring, and sustainable governance frameworks;

4. Framework Integration, ensuring systematic inclusion of NWG–Iceland and NE outputs into global disaster risk dashboards, anticipatory governance hubs, innovation ecosystems, and Pact for the Future foresight monitoring systems.

The systemic resilience and sustainable development challenges facing Iceland and the broader Arctic and North Atlantic regions demand sovereign, anticipatory, and digitally sovereign infrastructures.
NWG–Iceland and the Nexus Ecosystem offer a transformational, scalable, and future-ready pathway for systemic foresight, responsible innovation ecosystems, and resilient governance.

In full alignment with the Charter of the United Nations and the transformational ambitions articulated in the Pact for the Future, we submit this appeal and reaffirm our commitment to collaborative action, systemic foresight leadership, responsible innovation, and sustainable governance for Iceland.

Respectfully submitted,