Greenland stops oil and gas exploration, climate costs ‘too high’

Greenland’s new government campaigned against the resource extraction projects seen by others on the island as a route towards financial and political independence from Denmark Greenland’s natural resources minister Naaja Nathanielsen said the environment and climatic impacts of further oil and gas extraction had been assessed as being "too high" when weighed against potential financial gains, and was therefore being stopped . And, not issuing further exploration licenses was a "natural step," because Greenland took the "climate crisis seriously," according to the vast Arctic island’s Cabinet led by Prime Minister Mute Agede. "The future does not lie in oil. The future belongs to renewable energy, and in that respect we have much more to gain," the cabinet said, stressing sustainable farming of its natural resources such as fisheries stemming from Inuit traditions. Energy minister Kalistat Lund said Greenland was experiencing "the consequences of climate change in our country every day" and took " climate change seriously." Its parliament, the Naalakkersuisut, was working to attract new investments "for the large hydropower potential that we cannot exploit ourselves," Lund said. "This step has been taken for the sake of our nature, for the sake of our fisheries, for the sake of […]

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