What is Arctic Sustainable Development? Pressuring Energy Development and Natural Resource Exploitation under Inuit Self-Determination in Nunavut and Kalaallit Nunaat

Abstract

As the media and states have picked up on the narrative of the Arctic as a goldmine for rare earths and minerals and resources, both Nunavut and Greenland are at the centre of international attention. The coming to power of President Trump of the United States of America in 2025 has started with a second heavy push to purchase Greenland from Denmark. Greenlandic officials however have reiterated that the answer to these pressures is not a debate on who would be a better colonizer between Denmark and the USA, but to remain focused on Greenland’s self-determination and path towards independence. Meanwhile, in the case of Canada’s Arctic, midst the threats to Canadian sovereignty by claiming the country as a 51st state, Inuit officials in Nunavut remain clear on their own path towards self-determination within the Canadian federacy. This thesis-by-article is situated within this complex social, political and economic ecosystem and asks the fundamental question: “How do global and national energy-transition resource exploitation pressures reconfigure environmental governance in Greenland and Nunavut?” The first article of the thesis-by-articles – published in the Arctic Yearbook - dissects the underpinning political dynamics in regional natural resource development and global decarbonization. The main research question for this article is “How are natural resource exploitation pressures during the global energy transition reshaping environmental governance in Greenland and Nunavut, and what do these dynamics reveal about the applicability of Arctic Exceptionalism as a defining concept for the region?” The second article – currently under review with The Polar Journal - continues with the topic of natural resource development in line with Inuit self-determination, zooming in in Greenland as an independent state-to-be. It asks “How do Greenland’s political–economic choices in resource and energy development shape its pursuit of energy sovereignty?” The third article – published at The Northern Review - zooms in on Nunavut at the municipal and territorial governance level and dives deeper in the question of Inuit knowledge advanced by the previous article. The study asks “In what ways are community consultation practices and Inuit Knowledge embedded in renewable-energy decision-making in Nunavut, and how effective are they under Nunavut, Canadian, and international frameworks?” The articles each identify key findings for the fields of International Relations and critical political geography in their applicability to Arctic studies. The thesis helps address theoretical gaps of epistemological nature and empirical gaps in this field through a multidisciplinary approach. The main findings of the first article point towards an enmeshment of regional securitization with imperatives of environmental (sustainable) governance. Specifically, natural resource development (especially mining) has become a powerful avenue for decolonial and ecological self-determination against the colonial state (Canada and Denmark) and international growing pressures. The main findings of the second article are situated at the conceptual refining of the tensions between agency and structure where energy sovereignty, under the ‘post’ of Greenland’s colonial era, is structured by a balancing act between extractivism and ecology. Global interests thereby underscore Greenland’s sustainable development paradigm. The results elaborated on in the third article how differences in (i) federal language versus territorial language, in (ii) the theory of centering Inuit knowledge versus its implementation, and in (iii) the theory of community consultation based in the Duty to Consult and the Free, Prior and Informed consent frameworks versus its implementation in federal and territorial policy on resource and energy development. These tensions between the federal, the territorial, and intra-territorial, showcase how Inuit self-determination becomes a maneuver against colonial imposition in defining sustainability.