The government of Greenland has decided to suspend all oil exploration off the world’s largest island, calling it is “a natural step” because the Arctic government “takes the climate crisis seriously.”
This decision ends the country’s 50-year ambition to become an oil-producing nation. Oil exploration has taken place since the 1970s and has involved big companies such as Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Eni.
And though no oil has been found off Greenland, officials have always hoped that finding vast reserves would be one way Greenlanders could realize their long-held dream of independence from Denmark by cutting the annual subsidy of 3.4 billion kroner ($540 million) the Danish territory receives, according to KTLA5.com.
The climate crisis has caused Arctic ice to retreat, and the potential mineral wealth and strategic location prompted former President Donald Trump to propose buying the Arctic island, reports Reuters, but the idea was dismissed by both Greenland and Denmark.
A 2007 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report indicated that underground in the northeast of Greenland, there was potentially up to 31.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
“The future does not lie in oil. The future belongs to renewable energy, and in that respect, we have much more to gain,” the Greenland government said in a statement. The government said it “wants to take co-responsibility for combating the global climate crisis.”
The Associated Press notes that the government’s decision was made on June 24, 2021, but was made public on Thursday.
It was a decision that was made after careful consideration, and included the environmental impacts and the economic impacts on Greenland’s fishing industry, which the country relies on.
Interest in oil exploration has dwindled over the past decade, and oil price volatility and the risks and higher costs of working in the pristine and vulnerable Arctic waters all figured into the decision.
“It is a decision where climate considerations, environmental considerations, and economic common sense go hand in hand,” Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister of natural resources said. “Suspending the current oil strategy is the right choice.”
