The social license to operate of oil and gas development in Greenland

• Main Author: Smits, Coco C.A.
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Wageningen University 2019
• Subjects: Life Science; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Greenland; Climate change; greenlandic; Ice Sheet; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/the-social-license-to-operate-of-oil-and-gas-development-in-green; https://doi.org/10.18174/496700

The Arctic is changing. The effects of climate change are most profound in this part of the world: Sea ice extend is decreasing and temperatures are rising faster than anywhere else. The melting Greenlandic ice sheet is expected to contribute 6 meters to global sea level rise and is a threat for many densely populated coastal communities around the world. At the same time, the decreasing sea ice extend and rising temperatures also create new opportunities. The region is opening up to activities including fisheries, tourism, shipping, mining and oil and gas. Over the past decade an increase in economic activities was experienced throughout the Arctic and it was estimated that the region could potentially attract over $100 billion of investments. Shipping, mining and oil and gas were considered to be the main drivers of economic development and between 2010 and 2015 offshore oil and gas exploration activities took place in many parts of the Arctic Ocean. Even though the development of Arctic offshore oil and gas activities has largely come to a halt now, it has sparked a lot of debate and controversy over the past years. In 2009, right at the start of the boom in Arctic offshore oil and gas activities, Greenland obtained Self-Rule within the Kingdom of Denmark, thereby obtaining authority over the underground and thus the development of oil, gas and minerals. Greenland expressed the wish to develop these extractive resources to generate additional income and employment opportunities to support the long term wish of becoming (financially) independent from Denmark. In Greenland everything comes together: The melting ice sheet illustrating global climate change and at the same time a government expressing the ambition to develop oil and gas resources. Opening up to oil and gas development attracted the attention from some of the largest international oil companies and the world’s largest states, while Greenland has a population of only 56.000 people living on the world's largest island. Furthermore, the oil and gas ...