Greenland suspends oil drilling due to climate change

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Greenland’s left-leaning government has decided to suspend all oil drilling off the world’s largest island, calling it a “natural step” because the Arctic government “takes the climate crisis seriously”.

No oil has yet been found around Greenland, but officials there saw potentially huge reserves as a way to help Greenlanders realize their long-held dream of independence from Denmark by cutting the 3.4 billion kroner ($540 million) annual subsidies the Danish territory receives. .

Global warming means that retreating ice could reveal potential oil and mineral resources, which, if successfully exploited, could dramatically change the fortunes of the semi-autonomous region of 57,000 people.

“The future does not lie in oil. The future belongs to renewable energy, and in this regard, we have a lot to gain. The government said it wanted to take joint responsibility to combat the global climate crisis,” the Greenland government said in a statement.

The decision was made on June 24 but was announced on Thursday.

The US Geological Survey estimates there could be 17.5 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and 148 trillion cubic feet of natural gas off Greenland, although the island’s remote location and severe weather have limited exploration.

When the current government, led by the Inuit party Ataqtejit since the parliamentary elections in April, immediately began to fulfill its election promises and halted plans to extract uranium in southern Greenland.

Greenland still has four active hydrocarbon exploration licenses, which it is obligated to maintain as long as the licensees are actively exploring. They are held by two small companies.

The government’s decision to halt oil drilling was welcomed by the environmental organization Greenpeace, which described the decision as “wonderful”.

“My understanding is that the remaining licenses have very limited potential,” Mads Vlarob Christensen, general secretary of Greenpeace Nordic, told Danish technology weekly Ingenioeren.

Denmark decides on foreign, defense and security policy, and supports Greenland with the annual grant which accounts for about two-thirds of the Arctic island’s economy.

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