Reykjavík emissions down 5% since 2019, inventory shows

Reykjavík's 2025 climate inventory shows emissions down 5% since 2019

Reykjavík's 2025 climate inventory puts total emissions at 425,641 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, 5% below the recalculated 2019 baseline, as electric cars cut road emissions while older landfilled waste keeps waste emissions above baseline.

6 November 2026 by Robert Eduard Antal, facts checked automatically against the source · updated 10 November 2026

Key facts

Total emissions under the BASIC methodology were 425,641 tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2025, or 3.1 tonnes per resident.

About 17% of the distance driven by passenger cars in 2025 was electric, compared with 1% in 2019.

Waste landfilled at Álfsnes fell from 147,000 tonnes in 2018 to about 29,000 tonnes in 2025.

Reykjavík has published its climate inventory for 2025, which was presented to the city’s environment and planning council. Emissions are 5% lower than in the recalculated 2019 baseline year. The inventory is the city’s main measure for tracking progress towards its goal of carbon neutrality by 2030.

The overall figures

Total emissions under the BASIC methodology were 425,641 tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2025, or 3.1 tonnes per resident. Transport was by far the largest category, at about 320 thousand tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Road traffic alone accounted for about 267 thousand tonnes.

Electric cars cut road emissions

Road emissions have fallen since 2019 even though car traffic has grown since that year, which the city links to the pace of the energy transition in transport. In 2025 about 17% of the distance driven by passenger cars was electric, compared with 1% in 2019; including hybrids and plug-in hybrids, the share was up to 43%. Rising traffic since 2019 offsets part of these gains, so the city says continued electrification must go hand in hand with changes in travel habits.

Waste and energy

Waste emissions have increased since the baseline year. The amount of waste landfilled at Álfsnes has nonetheless fallen from 147 thousand tonnes in 2018 to about 29 thousand tonnes in 2025. Because landfilled waste releases methane for many years, the benefit of landfilling less shows up in the inventory with a delay. According to the calculations, landfill emissions peaked in 2022 and have been declining since.

Emissions from energy use remain low by international comparison. Despite higher electricity consumption in 2025, electricity emissions fell year on year because of the favourable emission factor of the Icelandic power system.

Indirect emissions and the wider plan

The city sees significant room to improve its accounting of scope 3 emissions, which occur outside the city limits because of activity and consumption in Reykjavík. Consumption-driven emissions from diet are estimated at about 3.54 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per Icelander per year, and from other goods and services at about 3.80 tonnes. For Reykjavík’s population this corresponds to about 491,000 and 527,000 tonnes a year, figures of the same order as the BASIC total.

Reykjavík is one of 112 European cities in the NetZeroCities programme, and its climate city contract is an important part of that work. The contract’s action plan groups measures into fifteen main actions aimed at cutting emissions by more than 400,000 tonnes by 2030 compared with 2019. The city has been part of the Global Covenant of Mayors and its predecessors since 2012, and publishing the inventory is part of that commitment.

Drafted with AI assistance from the cited source. Every fact was matched automatically against the source text; it was published without an editor reading it. Tell us about any mistake and we correct it on the page.