”It’s a blessing and a curse for us”. Negotiating postcolonial identity in the context of Greenlandic climate discourses

Abstract

The original decision by the Greenlandic government to abstain from the Paris Agreement in 2016, following COP21 was justified with criticism of the Agreement not protecting Indigenous rights to development and thus impeded Greenlandic goals of independence from the Danish Realm. This argument was utilised again at the recent announcement at COP26 in November 2021, by the Greenlandic Premier, to remove previous territorial reservations and now sign the Agreement. Thus, presenting a puzzle at the intersection of notions of Greenlandic identity and Indigeneity, supporting arguments both for and against Greenlandic climate mitigation. Previous research predates this recent shift in Greenlandic climate policies, where recent literature studies Greenlandic climate perceptions cross-sectionally disregarding the influence of identity negotiations and the potential of a longitudinal examination. This study, therefore contributes to the research gap, by its examination of identity conceptualisations in Greenland aimed at understanding how these connect to the Greenlandic climate discourse, through a comprehensive discourse analysis supported by an innovative analytical framework as well as the theoretical concepts of hybrid identity and senses of belonging. The results of the discourse analysis spanning text material from 2014 to 2022 showcases the intertwinement of identity conceptualisations in Greenland with climate discourses. Furthermore, the study illustrates the influence of these negotiations on Greenlandic climate discourses, through the re-framing of the meaning of Greenlandic independence, which enables broader notions of identity and Indigeneity and thus reformulates the climate discourse to allow for greater climate consciousness.