Wednesday will Inatsisartut decide whether to move the time zone back to UTC-3 and whether to abolish daylight saving time.
When they voted during the 2nd reading on Tuesday 13 October, 18 out of 31 members were in favor of the changes.
Two bills have been tabled from Siumut and Naleraq on the determination of time. Consultations have been held for both. Everything from departments in self-government to companies to organizations and citizens have submitted consultation responses.
The vast majority are negative towards the changes, while a few look at it positively.
The arguments against the time zone change are particularly based on the consequences for the business world, which is supported by six companies, six departments and three organisations.
Arguments for the time zone change are based on two things in particular: the well-being of the citizens and the working hours of the fishermen and prisoners. The National Medical Examiner’s Office says that there may be neutral to slightly positive health benefits from the changes, while KNAPK (Fisker- og Fangersamssumlengen i Greenland) has not submitted a response to the consultation.
Get an overview of the consultation responses here.
The departments
Seven departments have submitted consultation responses. Among them, four write that they are either against changing the time zone back to UTC-3 and abolishing summer time, or that they believe that too little time has passed since the time zone was first changed.
The Department of Finance and Taxes, the President’s Department, the Department of Business, Raw Materials, Energy, the Justice Area and Gender Equality, the Department of Housing, Infrastructure and Outer Districts, the Department of Fisheries and Catching and the Department of Health and Persons with Disabilities all point out the negative consequences of a time zone change.
The President’s Department warns against frequent changes in time legislation, as stability in time calculations is necessary for travel, traffic and trade across national borders, which become almost impossible to conduct safely if countries change their time legislation every few years.
“The department notes in this regard that the proposed change, other things being equal, will work against the opportunities for cooperation between Greenlandic and European companies and administrations,” writes the Department of Finance and Taxes in its response to the consultation, elaborating that a switch to UTC‑3 will affect Landskassen negatively.
The Department for Health and Persons with Disabilities writes that the switch to UTC-3 will result in an hour less common working time with the Greenland patient home in Denmark and the hospitals and health-related institutions with which it collaborates in Denmark. This is of significant importance for the absolutely necessary cooperation that currently exists between the Greenlandic healthcare system and the foreign partners.
Business is against it
A total of seven companies have submitted consultation responses. They are against changes to the time zone because it will increase the time difference between Denmark and Europe and have consequences for the possibility of doing business and cooperating with Denmark.
The most significant company is perhaps Air Greenland, which in several interviews with Sermitsiaq has explained what consequences it will have for them. In the consultation response to Naleraq’s proposal, they write that in the event of changing the time to UTC-3, they estimate that they will lose a double-digit million amount.
In addition to Air Greenland, Tusass, Visit Greenland, Greenland Airports, Bankivik, GrønlandsBanken and Modulo ApS have submitted consultation responses.
“Danish payment systems (e.g. Nets) close earlier than the Greenlandic working day. In the event of an error, Bankivik has one hour less to correct, and the salary may end up not being paid out until the next banking day”, writes Bankivik.
Visit Greenland also warns against the time zone change:
“Tourism is a long-term industry where trips are planned months or years in advance. In order to attract and retain guests, it is crucial that we as a destination appear stable, reliable and predictable. Repeated changes in something as fundamental as timing undermine this stability and can damage Greenland’s position as an attractive and accessible travel destination.”
The organizations
Three organizations have sent consultation responses in which they warn against the changes.
Greenland Business writes that the entire Greenlandic business community is set up according to the current time zone. It has provided great benefits for planning across companies and industries. And it will have consequences for the export of fish, flight route planning and tourism if the time zone changes.
“Especially the latter should be emphasized: if the country is to expand its tourism industry, so that tourism can become one of the main sources of income, why make the country even less accessible?” writes GE.
Greenland Business has also collected signatures from more than 40 representatives of companies and organizations for a letter of concern – including Blue Water, Polar Seafood and Pisiffik.
“If the proposed change of the time zone back to UTC -3 is adopted, it is not just a matter of changing the routines and prerequisites that have already been put in place, it will also require millions of dollars to get the technical measures in place — again — and it will potentially cost large sums to lose the agreements and possible agreements that have been concluded on the basis of, and in long-term trust in, the time zone change to UTC -2. These are direct and enormous costs for society,” it says in the letter of concern.
At the Greenland Sports Association, they emphasize that it is an advantage to have an extra hour of light in the afternoon in the winter, which can be used for physical activity. With the changes, their members will have one hour less to play sports after school or work.
SIK writes that they are against moving the clock back an hour, but they support the abolition of summer time.
National Medical Board
One of the arguments for changing the time zone and abolishing summer time is, as I said, the health of the population. But what difference will it really make?
The National Medical Board writes in its consultation response that there are a number of international studies which indicate that the transition to summer time can be associated with short-term health effects such as sleep disturbances and temporary disruption of the circadian rhythm.
However, there is no clear evidence, and several of the reported associations are based on observational data with methodological limitations. It is therefore difficult to draw certain conclusions about the health effects.
When it comes to the change of the time zone, there are again several international studies which have investigated geographical location within a time zone and correlation with, for example, amount of sleep, learning and certain health parameters.
In some cases, these indicate that a large difference between solar time and clock time can affect well-being and health, but the connections are complex and difficult to generalize to Greenlandic conditions, writes the National Medical Board.
“The National Medical Board assesses that the changes from a health perspective are neutral to slightly positive, although any health gains must be expected to be modest.”
Citizens
A total of 46 citizens have submitted consultation responses to the proposals from Naleraq and Siumut. They are all positive about the change to UTC-3 and the abolition of summer time.
“The time zone should correspond as far as possible to the rhythm of the day in the country: when the sun rises and when the sun sets and that it is 12 o’clock when the sun is highest in the sky. This is the general rule in the rest of the world and this should also be the case in Greenland,” writes Søren Hald Møller from Nuuk in his response to the consultation.
In addition, Taatsi Fleischer has started a petition, which at the time of writing has 4230 signatures, all of whom want the time zone back to UTC-3 and abolish daylight saving time.
A similar petition was made by influencer and former politician Qupanuk Olsen in 2024, which received around 2700 signatures.
Several of the consultation responses have pointed out that an online signature collection is not representative, and there is no guarantee that everyone who has signed is entitled to vote in Greenland.
On Wednesday, Inatsisartut will make the final decision on what to do at the time.
