[{"bbox": [83, 105, 1170, 241], "category": "Text", "text": "Greenland has not signed the Paris Agreement. The reason for not signing is that related commitments on CO2 emissions would prevent Greenland from exploitation of natural resources, first and foremost oil and natural gas, which would otherwise form a basis for a self-sustaining economy and provide a basis for increased independency from Denmark on the longer term. With the recent GoG decision to stop all oil and gas exploration in future this decision might have implication for the Greenland position vis-à-vis the Paris Agreement."}, {"bbox": [83, 267, 242, 294], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### Social inequality"}, {"bbox": [83, 294, 1170, 397], "category": "Text", "text": "Statistics Greenland regularly publishes statistics on income and income distribution, including three indicators each describing one area of income distribution: Gini coefficient, relative poverty and income quintile share ratio S80/20. All three indicators are calculated according to international standards therefore ensuring a high degree of comparability with other countries."}, {"bbox": [83, 425, 1167, 610], "category": "Text", "text": "Income inequality - as measured by the Gini-coefficient¹⁷ on disposable income (2019) - is greater in Greenland (0.34) than the average for all Nordic countries, including Denmark (0.29) and the EU countries (0.31)¹⁸. After a declining trend in income inequality from 2005 -2009 measured by all three indicators, the trend in the following years has shown an increasing tendency except for the latest available year of calculation (2019) showing a slight decline¹⁹. Child poverty in Greenland remains relatively high and the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2021) reported that certain towns in Greenland suffered from significant food shortages, particularly impacting children from low-income families²⁰."}, {"bbox": [83, 638, 436, 665], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### Future fiscal sustainability challenges"}, {"bbox": [83, 665, 1170, 878], "category": "Text", "text": "Even though the GoG has pursued a balanced fiscal policy in recent years up to the COVID-19 crisis, the Greenland's economy will face an important future challenge due to demographic changes from a combination of increase in the share of the older population (65+ years) relative to groups at working age (20-64 years) and shrinking income sources in the coming 25 year period²¹. It is estimated that a permanent improvement to the tune of EUR 135 million over the next 15 to 20 years is needed to insure a sustainable economy²². Reforms of the welfare state to close the gap between expenditures and income are therefore essential as public income is currently already around 60% of GDP. In order to meet these challenges, the previous Governments has adopted the Sustainability and Growth Plan (2016) setting out four main reform areas (including education) including benchmarks and key performance indicators²³."}, {"bbox": [83, 903, 1170, 930], "category": "Text", "text": "In conclusion, the authorities are pursuing a stability-oriented macroeconomic policy and the eligibility criterion is met."}, {"bbox": [147, 967, 524, 996], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### 2.3.4. Public Financial Management"}, {"bbox": [83, 1004, 1148, 1164], "category": "Text", "text": "The last Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessment completed in 2014 confirmed that the Greenland Public Finance Management system is well-designed and functioning to good quality standards. A new PEFA assessment is being carried out in 2021 with EU support. The 2014 PEFA report provided a positive assessment in all areas. However, it also identified some systemic weaknesses, which are being addressed in the former and updated version of the PFM Action Plan. The PFM Action Plan initially focused on 2015 - 2016 and was later updated annually up to 2021."}, {"bbox": [83, 1192, 1148, 1353], "category": "Text", "text": "The yearly progress reports demonstrate that the GoG continues to make progress in strengthening its PFM system and procedures. The last PFM progress reports (developed with EU assistance) reveals that in 2019 79% of the targets were fully or partially met. This is comparable with the level in 2017 (78%), and well above the 2018 level (53%). However, some challenges remain, mainly related to procurement activities. Major recent achievements include a new Enterprise Resource Planning system which was implemented, migration to a new accounting system (PRIMSE) and the adoption of a new 'Law for Procurement of Goods and Services' (both in 2020)."}, {"bbox": [73, 1470, 1157, 1517], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁷ A Gini coefficient with the value 0 represents a perfectly equal distribution, while the value 100 represents a perfectly unequal distribution."}, {"bbox": [73, 1517, 568, 1541], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁸ Statistics Greenland 2021, Greenland in Numbers, 2021."}, {"bbox": [73, 1541, 583, 1565], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁹ Statistics Greenland, Income Statistics. 26th October 2020."}, {"bbox": [73, 1565, 1035, 1592], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁰ Human Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review Thirty-eighth session 3–14 May 2021."}, {"bbox": [73, 1592, 523, 1615], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²¹ Source: Report Greenland Economic Council 2017"}, {"bbox": [73, 1615, 523, 1639], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²² Source: Report Greenland Economic Council 2017"}, {"bbox": [73, 1639, 515, 1663], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²³ Cf. Political Economic Reports of 2019 and 2020."}, {"bbox": [1040, 1663, 1159, 1687], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 15 of 35"}]