Greenland solves the daylight saving time debate

The 56,000 people in Greenland will soon be acclimating to a new time zone, and depending on which side of the hot daylight saving debate you’re on in the US, you might be envious.

On Mar 25, Greenland will move its clocks forward one hour to UTC -2 time zone for the summer, just as it has done in the past. Except starting this year, it will stay in that time zone for good. No more suffering through twice-yearly clock changes; come October, Greenland won’t roll back to standard time like they will in the rest of Europe and the US. 

This means there will be just three hours’ difference instead of four between most of Greenland and Copenhagen starting this winter. (Greenland, while self-governing, is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.)

For residents in areas of the island that are below the Arctic Circle, it will mean one hour of light later in the day – although as a tourist you’re not likely to notice the difference given the seasonal extremes of sunrise and sunset. The capital city, Nuuk, may see up to 20 hours of sunlight in summer, but gets about only four hours of sunlight in the winter, for instance. 

The decision to drop daylight saving time has been a hot debate among Greenland’s politicians since before the pandemic, much like it is now in the US. The main argument in Greenland in favour of the change: It’s a chance to be closer to European business hours, which would benefit the economy, explains Tanny Por, head of international relations at Visit Greenland. BLOOMBERG