Greenland is stopping its gas and oil extraction due to the environmental and climatic impacts being “too high” compared to potential financial gains, states Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s Minister of Natural Resources.
According to Greenland’s Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Múte Egede, halting exploration licenses is a “natural step” because Greenland takes the “climate crisis seriously.”
The country’s Inuit traditions are based around its sustainable farming of natural resources. “The future does not lie in oil. The future belongs to renewable energy, and in that respect, we have much more to gain,” comments the Cabinet.
Kalistat Lund, Greenland’s Minister of Energy, stated that he was experiencing “the consequences of climate change in our country every day” and takes “climate change seriously.”
Nathanielsen followed up by commenting, “This step has been taken for the sake of our nature, for the sake of our fisheries, for the sake of our tourism industry, and to focus our business on sustainable potentials.”