Policy making in Iceland over the past century has resulted in the savings of 350 million tons in CO₂ emissions and could reach 50 million tons of CO₂ in savings annually through a policy of ecological utilisation, which in six years is equivalent to the annual emissions of France, with a population of 66 million people.

Orkustofnun has evaluated the CO₂ savings from using geothermal instead of oil from 1914 through 2014. The accumulated savings are 140 million tons by utilizing geothermal instead of using oil for heating and production of electricity as is widely done abroad. Two thirds of the CO₂ savings are the contribution of the Icelandic district heating utilities over the past century.