A Canadian in Iceland: The country's first lady on how her adopted home is tackling climate change
With the United Nations climate summit poised to begin, Iceland touts its record
Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of a CBC News initiative entitled Our Changing Planetto show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it.
Through the window ofher home at Iceland's presidential residence, Canadian Eliza Reid is in the unique position of being able togaze out at some of the country's most outstanding natural wonders from volcanoes to spectacular vistas.
"There have been people living here [in this location]since the time of settlement, over a thousand years ago," Reid, who is married to Iceland's president, said in an interview with CBC News.
Icelanders have proven exceptionally skilled throughout history at adapting to all sorts of environmental challenges,she said, including the latest one: a warming climate.
A patio at the residence overlooksa dramatic ocean bay with a skyscape of the capital city of Reykjavik and asilhouette of the still-smouldering volcano, Mount Fagradalsfjall, in the distance.
But it's the wetlands and bird sanctuary, just a few metresaway on the presidential estate, to whichReid and her husband, President Guni Jhannesson,draw the attention of a visiting CBC News crew.
"We had ditches there," Jhannesson said, pointing to a grassy area close to the shoreline. "They were dug in the 1930s to cultivate the land. Now, we are filling up those ditches [with water]. It's a case of wetland reclamation."
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With the United Nationsclimatechange conferencepoised to begin Sunday in Glasgow, the couple's conversation with CBC News focused mainly on Iceland's efforts to hit COP26's target of net-zero emissions by mid-century.
The Conference of Parties (COP), as it's known, meets every year and is the global decision-making body set up to implement theUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in the early 1990s, and subsequent climate agreements.
WATCH |Eliza Reid onher adopted country's solutions for climate change:
Dry ditches being filled with water
Iceland's environmental agencyestimates that roughly one-third of the tiny country's greenhouse gas emissions come from the agriculturesector.
It has become a national priority to return tens of thousands of kilometresof dry ditches back to their original watery state to better absorb those emissions, putting the island one step closer to hitting net zero.
"I absolutely see a changing environment," Reidsaid, noting that a glacier thatonce almost touched Reykjavik's city limits has receded by five kilometres since she moved here in 2003.
"But there's also wonderfully optimistic examples of work that we're doing to try to improve this."
Reid, 45, has been Iceland's first lady since Jhannessonwas elected president five years ago. Iceland's president is the head of state, but executive power is in the hands of thegovernment.
Reid grew up near the Ottawa Valley community of Ashton, Ont., and the couple met while they were both studying history at Oxford University in England.
After they becameengaged, she followed himto Iceland, eventually learning Icelandic and raising four children.
"There is no job description, which is the scary and wonderful thing about it,"Reid said of her position as spouse of the head of state.
"But it's an honour and a privilege to have the opportunity and the platform to serve my adopted country in this way."
Reid hasalso just published a book on gender equality in Iceland featuring the stories of prominent women and their successes.
Home to world's largest CO2-removalplant
In Iceland's most recent parliamentary election last month, the choice for voterswas often described as being between those parties and candidates pledging to reach carbon neutrality by2040 a decade before most other European nationsand opponents arguing that the date for net zero should happen even faster.
"Iceland is a global leader in terms of renewable energy sources," Reid said. "You know, the building that we're sitting in now is heated with geothermal energy or the electricity is provided with renewable sources."
As many as 85 per centof the homes in Iceland are heated by geothermal energy perhaps not surprising, given that the island sits atop a series of burbling volcanoes.
Throughoutthe capital, people enjoy luxuriating year-round in outdoor swimming pools heated by the energy of the earth.
But Jhannessonsays the technology to tap into geothermal energy can be applied almost anywhere.
"All around the world, you can find Icelandic companies trying to develop, with interested parties, geothermal energy. So this is one of the keys to tackle the climate crisis not just to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, but also to create cleaner, better cities."
Iceland is also the new home for the world's largest direct air capture plant. Swiss company Climeworks has spent $10 million USto build the facility, next to a geothermal station on the outskirts of Reykjavik.
Until now, carbon capturehas primarily focused on industrial operations, such asemissions fromoil refineries, where the gases are concentrated and easier to trap. However, the technology used in theClimeworks facility allows it to separate and collectdispersed CO2 in the atmosphere.
The captured gas is then entombed underground, where it chemically reacts with Iceland's volcanic rocks and petrifies, sealing up the gas forever.
The Iceland plant'syearly capacity of 4,000 tonnesof CO2 a year is modest compared withcapture operations attached to refineries whichpull in hundreds of thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases annually. However, direct air capture has the potential to offset emissions from any industry, anywhere.
"So this technology of capturing CO2 in the atmosphere and drilling it down into the Earth can be applied elsewhere. It's just a matter of finance and the right conditions," Jhannesson said.
Despite successes, Iceland faces challenges
Still, Iceland faces major challenges in order to hit its own net-zero milestones.
Though it's home to just 380,000 people, the country's environmental agency says it has the highest per-capita greenhouse gas emissions in Europe.
Iceland has several large aluminum plants thatare big emitters, and the need to fly or ship in most goods also adds to increased emissions.
The tourism sector is also expanding rapidly, Jhannesson said, and now outpaces the income from fishing, the previous top earner. Those extra visitors only add to the country's emissions footprint.
Reid says Icelanders share a common trait with Canadians in that their lives are shaped by a northern climate, and she says they share a similar outlook about the need to slow the pace of climate change or face grave risks.
"We know that nature is the boss."
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