The energy transition is delivering results
Reykjavík City has published its 2025 greenhouse gas emissions inventory and presented it to the Environment and Planning Council. Under the BASIC methodology, total emissions in 2025 were 425,641 metric tons of CO2 equivalent, or 3.1 metric tons per resident. Emissions fell 5% from the recalculated 2019 baseline under the BASIC methodology.
The greenhouse gas emissions inventory shows how emissions are changing in Reykjavík and serves as a vital tool for tracking the City’s progress toward its climate goals. Reykjavík aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 and is one of 112 European cities collaborating through NetZeroCities to become carbon-neutral and smart cities. Reykjavík’s Climate City Contract is a central part of that effort. The inventory highlights where Reykjavík has made progress and where more work is needed.
Reykjavík has been a party to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) and its predecessor agreements since 2012. GCoM is an international agreement among cities and municipalities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and publish information on how their emissions change over time. Publishing the greenhouse gas emissions inventory is part of that commitment.
Transportation is by far the largest emissions category
Transportation remains by far the largest emissions category, accounting for about 320,000 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent in 2025. Road traffic alone accounted for roughly 267,000 metric tons. Emissions from road traffic have fallen since 2019, even as car traffic has increased. That trend reflects how quickly the energy transition is progressing in transportation. In 2025, passenger cars traveled about 17% of their total distance on electric power, up from 1% in 2019. Counting the distance driven by hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars brings that share to as much as 43%.
The trend shows that the energy transition is already reducing emissions. However, the increase in car traffic since 2019 is offsetting those gains. To meet its climate goals, Reykjavík needs to keep the energy transition moving while also working to change travel habits.
Changes in travel habits can also improve quality of life, partly by increasing daily physical activity as more people walk or bike.
Emissions from waste
Waste emissions, however, have increased since the baseline year. Even so, the amount of waste sent to the Álfsnes landfill fell sharply, from 147,000 metric tons in 2018 to about 29,000 metric tons in 2025. The Álfsnes landfill continues to release emissions as waste buried in earlier years breaks down. Because buried waste releases methane for years, it takes time for emissions reductions from landfilling less waste to show up in the greenhouse gas emissions inventory. Calculations show that landfill emissions peaked in 2022 and have declined since then.
Emissions from energy use
Emissions from energy use remain low compared with those elsewhere in the world. Although electricity use rose in 2025, emissions from electricity fell from the previous year because Iceland’s power system has a low emissions factor, meaning it produces relatively little greenhouse gas per unit of electricity. District heating emissions also fell from the previous year because the system produced less heat and had a lower emissions factor.
Emissions from land use
A fresh look at land use emissions has changed how Reykjavík accounts for emissions in the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) category. Updated land classifications and consistent emissions factors from Iceland’s national greenhouse gas inventory give a clearer picture of emissions in this category.
A clearer picture of indirect emissions
Reykjavík can still do much more to track scope 3 emissions, which occur outside city limits as a result of activity and consumption within the city. The inventory already tracks emissions from sources such as construction materials, food production, electricity distribution losses and waste treatment outside city limits.
For comparison, estimates put the annual emissions associated with the average Icelander’s diet at about 3.54 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent and those from other goods and services they use at about 3.80 metric tons. Across Reykjavík’s population, those estimates amount to about 491,000 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent per year for diet and 527,000 for other goods and services. These figures are comparable in scale to Reykjavík’s total emissions under the BASIC methodology and give a sense of the climate impacts of consumption that the inventory captures only in part.
Better access to data on supply chains, fuel production, product use and consumption patterns will help Reykjavík get a fuller picture of its climate impacts in the coming years.
The City of Reykjavík prepares its greenhouse gas emissions inventory using the City Inventory Reporting and Information System (CIRIS), which is based on the international standard Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories (GPC).
