Arctic Economics

Are there enough people in Greenland for a whole country?

Greenlanders have been pressing for more autonomy from Denmark, and looking forward to independence.  Anne Sibert asks, "Undersized: Could Greenland be the new Iceland? Should it be?"  Greenland has 60,000 people, is that enough for a nation-state?

She points out that:

The Stoltenberg Report

Last June, the Nordic foreign ministers asked Norway's former Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence, Thorvald Stoltenberg, for ideas to encourage closer foreign affairs and security cooperation over the next 10 to 15 years. 

Now we have it:  Nordic Cooperation On Foreign and Security Policy.  Stoltenberg's 13 proposals are his own work, based on conversations with politicians and experts; this is not the result of committee deliberations and there was a very limited staff.  These will be developed further in coming weeks and will be taken up at a meeting of the Nordic foreign ministers in Reykjavik this spring (Stoltenberg Report Presented to Nordic Foreign Ministers).

Not all of the proposals deal with the Arctic, but many do.  In summary:

Holman (Ulukhaktok) in April

Johanna Wandel, the "Geo-geek," went to Holman, Northwest Territories, in April 2005, and sent back these great pictures: White on White. 

Wandel gets around; here are other photo essays on Iqaluit and Arctic Bay on Baffin Island, ice roads near Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, and Greenland.

The Global International Waters Assessment

FYI:

The Global International Waters Assessment is preparing studies of the world's marine water bodies.  Studies are available for three Arctic regions:

Greenland and Denmark Decide How to Split Income from Greenland's Oil

Greenland's home rule government and the government of Denmark have signed an agreement dealing with relations between the two countries, and outlining an approach to splitting income from the oil fields that are likely to be found off Greenland's coast: Denmark, Greenland Divide Arctic Island's Future Oil Income (Christian Wienberg, Bloomberg, June 13).

Oil income will be split as follows:

Under today's agreement, Greenland will receive the first 75 million kroner ($15 million) generated from oil production, while the two governments will split additional proceeds until Denmark has received an equivalent of the 3.2 billion kroner it pays in annual subsidies to the Arctic Island. Greenland will receive all additional proceeds after that.

In addition:

``This agreement recognizes us as a people, it makes Greenlandic our official language and it gives us our right to our underground resources,'' Enoksen said at a Copenhagen press conference after talks with Rasmussen.

The decision on the oil income split is not of academic interest:

Oil companies have begun looking for crude oil deposits off Greenland's west coast. The island's government hasn't made an exact estimate of the amount of oil in the region other than to say it's ``equal to North Sea reserves.'' The North Sea's past production and future reserves totals more than 50 billion barrels of crude oil....

Last October, Greenland's government awarded licenses to explorers including Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Husky Energy Inc. The companies will now collect seismic data to determine the best drilling locations.