Greenland by Andrea Gjestvang (59 images)

COP15 AND THE ARCTIC

Greenland and the Arctic have been identified as one of areas at highest risk of being affected by climate change. The ice is melting and the traditional life conditions slowly disappearing.
Inuit leaders from around the Arctic are asking world leaders gathering for the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen next month to pledge to agree to a "meaningful" climate treaty that will protect the future of the region. The plea is sent through the...
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COP15 AND THE ARCTIC

Greenland and the Arctic have been identified as one of areas at highest risk of being affected by climate change. The ice is melting and the traditional life conditions slowly disappearing.
Inuit leaders from around the Arctic are asking world leaders gathering for the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen next month to pledge to agree to a "meaningful" climate treaty that will protect the future of the region. The plea is sent through the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, and the leaders underscore the widespread effects of climate change on the region's cultures.

Conflict of interests
However, Greenland does not feel that Denmark adequately represents its interests in the international climate change negotiations and threatens to let itself be represented by the G-77 at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.
Being a non-independent country, Greenland is represented by Denmark in international negotiations such as the Copenhagen conference. But now Greenland's Home Rule Government considers joining the G-77, a group of poor countries such as Sudan, Suriname and Samoa, in Copenhagen.
According to an agreement between Greenland and Denmark from 2001, Greenland has to reduce its CO2 emissions by 8 percent in 2008-2012 compared to 1990 levels. Greenlandic politician claim that this is impossible if they do not get resources and new technology that can help them adapt to the new conditions.

"Greenland maintains its right to stand outside an agreement, if the conditions of the agreement entail economic sanctions for developing countries such as Greenland which tries to develop and strengthen its people and its society," Prime Minister Kuupik Kleist is quoted as saying.

Photographer Andrea Gjestvang has travelled to small settlements along the east and west coast as well as in the far north to photograph the changing life of the Inuit's.
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