Cold facts, hot topics and uncertain futures: Political and industry responses to climate changes in Greenland

This article discusses political and industry responses to climate changes in a Greenlandic context. Using mining and tourism as two telling examples, we show how global discourses on the Arctic as a ‘climate loser’ is reconfigured locally seeing receding ice as an opportunity for industrial and tourism development. Paradoxically, the expected opportunities of actual and anticipated climate changes have entailed reluctance within the political establishment and in the industry against reducing CO2 emissions and are expected to strengthen the dependency on fossil fuels in years to come.