Responding to news that the newly-elected Greenland government has decided to pause the issuing of new licenses to oil companies looking to drill in the fragile Arctic environment, Jon Burgwald, Arctic Campaigner for Greenpeace in Denmark, said:
“This is a major step towards protecting Greenland from a catastrophic oil spill, but more still needs to be done to protect the unique local environment. Almost all of west Greenland is already open for oil drilling, so the threat of a catastrophic oil spill in areas like Baffin Bay remains.”
“Until now, the people in Greenland have been kept in the dark about the enormous risks taken by the politicians and companies in the search for Arctic oil. Now it seems that the new government will start taking these risks seriously, the logical conclusion must be a total ban on offshore oil drilling in Greenland.”
The new government has announced a welcome change from the former government’s policy of secrecy, stating that "the offshore industry's safety plans for environmental and safety should be generally available to the public.” (1) This means the government is bound to ensure that future oil extraction is carried out with full public transparency.
The agreement states:
- Current exploration and extraction permits for oil extraction will stay in force, but the government will be reluctant towards granting new permits
- A resource monitoring system will be created.
- Royalty, which is based on world market prices, will be added to the existing legislation. The fee may be increased depending on project size.
- A supervisory within the parliament will be created, which will maintain parliamentary supervision of mineral resources.
- All plans from companies shall be publicly announced and full transparency in the administration must be ensured.
- Offshore industry safety plans for environment and safety in general must be publicly available.
For further information, please contact:
Stefano Gelmini, Greenpeace press officer, 020 7865 8296
Jon Burgwald, Greenpeace Nordic Arctic campaigner, +45 40 81 88 98
1. Coalition agreement of the newly formed Greenlandic government: http://sermitsiaq.ag/sites/default/files/koalitionsaftale_2013_2017_dk.pdf
