To Live Up to Our Name “Greenland”:Politics of Comparison in Greenland’s Green Transition

• Main Author: Bjørst, Lill Rastad
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: green transition; Politics of comparison; Greenland; Paris Agreement; Hydropower; Extractive industries; REE; Climate Change; Energy transition; Energy; Green Behavior; Inuit; Arctic; greenlandic; inuit
• Online Access: https://vbn.aau.dk/da/publications/1b8010c3-fc1c-4222-9433-0388b9299cd4; https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/files/510204073/Bj_rst_2022_AY2022_FINAL.docx; https://arcticyearbook.com/images/yearbook/2022/Scholarly-Papers/18A_AY2022_Bjrst.pdf

In 2021, the Government of Greenland made an active, discursive shift in the political discourse regarding Greenlandic development. Since the last general election, the political agenda has changed from prioritizing industrialization and the development of extractive industries (with little focus on ratifying international treaties and commitments to lower CO2 emissions to limit global warming) to suddenly wanting to “live up to our name, Greenland” by kickstarting a green transition with the ambition to be an exporter of hydropower and mining rare earth elements (REE) to support the technology for the green transition. At the time of writing, Greenland has no formal climate strategy for the country or a strategy for green energy transition. Analyzing collected data (presentations at COP26 and the related notes, videos, reports, and statements) is therefore the best way to understand Greenland’s up-to-date priorities related to the green transition and position in the international climate change debate. Greenland lacks a nicely sealed package of peers and keeps on searching for other nation-states to get inspiration. Therefore, the following research question is posed: To whom (or what) does Greenland compare itself to in the process of finding a fitting model for future green development? The reading strategy for this article is inspired by the politics of comparison with the act of comparing and producing categories as the object of study.