No Oil Exploration in Greenland’s Polar Ocean

Greenland’s strategy on environmental regulation of raw materials for the 2019-2023 period, which is out on hearing these days, recommends keeping four particularly vulnerable sea areas free of oil exploration, according to Sermitsiaq.

One of the four areas is the Polar Ocean, defined as the waters north of 75 degrees N in Western Greenland and north of 80 degrees N in East Greenland.

The recommendations come from scientists at the Pinngortitaleriffik (Greenland Institute of Natural Resources) and the Danish Center for Environment and Energy at Aarhus University.

This is due to the more or less permanent presence of sea ice, which leads to both increased risk for accidents and oil spills as well as increased difficulties with cleaning up a potential oil spill in case of an incident, according to the experts.