Greenland changes time zone, but not the time
Daylight saving time or standard aka winter time, that is a question that has been discussed in many countries for quite some time. Last weekend it was that time of the year again and the clocks were set back by one hour on Sunday. In Greenland things went a little differently, because the country did not change the time, but the time zone.
As of Sunday, the official change to a new time zone is a reality for most parts of Greenland. Instead of switching to winter or rather standard time and thus to the UTC-3 time zone, the clocks in Greenland remained as they had been since March 26, namely on daylight saving time, which means that most areas of the country remained in the UTC-2 time zone. This means that the time difference with Denmark and with Central Europe is now only 3 hours, which is generally considered an advantage especially in the business world.
Officially, the legal change of the time zone came into force on March 26, 2023, when Greenland switched to daylight saving time for the last time. But only now, on the last weekend in October, the final step took place, when the clocks were no longer changed. On the one hand, this brings Greenland a little closer to Europe, at least in terms of time, but on the other hand, Greenland is going its own way, as the EU is discussing the abolition of daylight saving time and a return to standard time.
But the new time zone does not apply to all parts of Greenland. In fact, three locations are situaed in different time zones: At Pittufik Space Base, the U.S. Air Force base, UTC-4 applies to be closer to the U.S.; at Danmarkshavn, where the Danish weather station is located, the UTC time zone applies, making it easier to supply the station from Iceland; at Ittoqqortoormiit in East Greenland, the time zone is UTC-1 and UTC in summer, as the location is also served by summer flights from Iceland. There, the local community is supposed to be able to decide whether it wants to join the new time zone or keep the status quo.
Time for discussions
The government led by Múte B. Egede had already initiated the law shortly after taking office. However, the bill was not met with enthusiasm. Business representatives in particular were enthusiastic about a shorter time difference to Denmark and the rest of Europe and supported the bill. Nevertheless, the draft had to survive three readings and heated debates in the Inatsisartut parliament before it was finally accepted. The parliamentarians were skeptical about how the change would affect people’s health. After all, in the new time zone it will remain dark longer in the morning and light longer in the evening. Iceland, which has not had daylight saving time since 1968 and lies in UTC-0 time zone, said the transition had led to health problems among adolescents and young adults. For this reason, opponents of the law called for a scientifically supervised study of the consequences of the changeover. In this regard, the government has promised to observe a corresponding project in Iceland and will wait for the results.
According to the media, the change took place without major problems, and on many websites that are electronically controlled, the information that UTC-2 applies in Greenland remained. Only information sites like Wikipedia still have to change the information manually. This is likely to take some time.
Dr Michael Wenger, PolarJournal
More about this topic
