No country or city is perfect. Reykjavík is no different. While their NET zero energy production is something to aspire to, it is worth noting that the city is not completely fossil free, as mentioned throughout this web case (Iceland IEA, n.d.). While coal has been phased out since 2015 and is no longer in use, oil is still their number one CO2 emissions contributed (Iceland IEA, n.d.). Their top two CO2 emissions contributor is from transportation and from their fishing district (Iceland IEA, n.d. see also figure 1). While Iceland has been making great strides in the electric vehicle (EV) area, as mentioned in the Energy Creation and Consumption page, Iceland only has 315,000 registered vehicles (Carbonaro, 2022). In comparison, the United States has nearly 279,000,000 registered vehicles on the road. Even so, with the massive increase of EV’s in Iceland, most cars on the road are still gas. Not to mention other vehicles, like tractors, boats, and planes are also all gas run.
While not looked at directly in this webcase, Iceland also in other aspects fails to be sustainable. As I know of, Iceland regularly hunt whales, puffins and other animals that are currently dwindling in population to cater to tourism. Something else that is very visible in Iceland is the amount of single use plastics, while not as extensive as the United States, is still overly used. One thing that even being in Iceland that I have noticed is their extensive recycling program, which mandates Icelanders to separate cardboard, plastic, paper, and compost. If you would like to read more regarding their waste management, attached is a brief PDF that goes in depth into this process.
Figure 1
ICELAND_waste_prevention_2023