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Sunday 05.02.2012

No climate change deal unless it means more emissions for Greenland

"Should we have any hope economic growth and free ourselves from the Danish block grant, we must develop our economy"— Greenland's PM Kuupik Kleist

While melting glaciers and less sea ice to make Greenland one of the places in the world who are most affected by climate change, Greenlanders want to produce up to 14 times more greenhouse gases than today, reports the Danish daily Politiken.

Greenland's prime minister Kuupik Kleist says he will refuse to sign a new global agreement on climate change during the Copenhagen summit in December if Greenland is not allowed to increase its emissions.

"Should we have any hope economic growth and free ourselves from the Danish block grant, we must develop our economy," Kleist said.

Greenland’s carbon dioxide emissions in 2007 were 650,000 tonnes. But that could rise to 10 million tonnes, if the administration’s plan to attract new industries is realised.

These include an agreement with Alcoa to build an aluminium smelter.

“People don’t want us to live from our traditional methods, but nor do they want us to develop new industries. What should we do? Is it because they want us to maintain an economic dependency so that we continue to collect subsidies from Denmark,” said Kleist, who met Denmark's climate minister Connie Hedegaard this week.

Unlike the Faroe Islands, Greenland chose to accept obligations under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, but has so far been unable to live up to an eight per cent reduction by 2012. New restrictions on Greenland emissions would be almost impossible to honour, Kleist said.

“It is very important for me to find a solution with Denmark. But we may be forced into a situation in which we will have to remain outside a climate agreement and not accept obligations to reduce emissions,” says Kleist.

Hedegaard has said she will work with Greenland to find a solution, but rejected the country’s demand that its per capita emissions rise to 170 tonnes.

Heegaard said Greenland’s demands would make Greenland one of the world’s most polluting countries.

“It is difficult to argue in favour of one of the places hardest hit by climate change being allowed to emit eight-and-a-half times as much as the average American,” Hedegaard said.

After his meeting with Hedegaard, Kleist said that "it has been important for me to stress that the discussion we have in Denmark around Greenland situation, it is not an isolated debate, which only concerns us. It is quite a key issue in the negotiations up to the summit, and it is quite a key issue to be addressed if we are to make any hope that the Kyoto agreement will be replaced by a new global agreement."