Trump knows climate change is real — that's why he wants to mine Greenland 

Thawing permafrost in Greenland creates access to critical minerals that were previously difficult to extract or were otherwise inaccessible. Within the last month, rumblings about a major U.K. mining deal in Greenland were matched with chatter about an impending agreement between the U.S. government and Critical Minerals Corp., causing shares of that company to surge.  

The latter partnership would provide the U.S. with a stake in a valuable, heavy rare-earth elements mining operation in Southern Greenland. These elements are essential in the energy transition including for clean energy battery storage and components for electric vehicles. They are also necessary for defense applications ranging from unmanned aerial systems to submarines. 

In a video call with CNBC in January, Critical Minerals Corp. CEO Tony Sage noted that ice melt has done “enormous favors” for his mining operation, allowing ships from the North Atlantic to access the site “right up to the edge of our ore body.” Unsurprisingly, climate change will also present challenges to this project. 

“Greenland is often considered ‘ground zero’ for the climate crisis because even small shifts in temperature can have outsize impacts across the entire Arctic region,” writes the auditor of an independent technical assessment on Critical Minerals Corp.’s Tanbreez Rare Earth Project. “Scientists have estimated that if the Greenland ice sheet were to melt completely, it could raise global sea levels by more than seven metres. This will be a matter for infrastructure planning in the future as it is proposed to position the plant at the edge of the Fjord.”  

Additional roadblocks include an overall lack of infrastructure in Greenland, high labor costs and weather that remains harsh even as Earth warms. It also remains to be seen if the U.S. will have the capacity to refine the extracted minerals in question. 

The Arctic region, of which Greenland is part, has been the subject of increased interest in recent years. Global warming is happening faster there than anywhere on Earth, and it shows. Entire communities in the eight-country region have been displaced due to sea level rise and sinking infrastructure caused by permafrost thaw. Food sources are also at risk, with large salmon die-offs attributed in part to warming waters. 

Melting ice will alter shipping routes and give way to new national security concerns. Russia has already increased military buildout and marine activity in the region, and last year China sent three icebreakers to the Arctic. 

When President Trump stated at the United Nations General Assembly that climate change is “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” what he really meant is that he intends to propel fossil fuel extraction and use in the U.S. to benefit the industries that spent hundreds of millions of dollars to get him and the 119th Congress elected. But he will also attempt to gain a stronger toehold in a region that has been destabilized because of climate change, even capitalizing on that destabilization. National security is at risk, and there is money to be made.  

Not only does Trump know climate change is real, he’s banking on it. 

Allison Agsten is director of the USC Annenberg Center for Climate Journalism and Communication, an affiliate with the Arctic Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, and executive producer of the energy transition podcast “Electric Futures.”