Governments turn against deep-sea mining as EV boom drives demand for metals.
But in recent weeks, Chile, Fiji, Palau and other nations have called for a moratorium on ocean mining until there is a better understanding of the environmental consequences of destroying little-explored and unique deep-sea ecosystems that play an undetermined role in the global climate. French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, expressed his opposition to seabed mining in June at the United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
Ambassador Gina Guillén Grillo, who serves as Costa Rica’s permanent representative to the ISA and a delegate to the Council, said, “My country has many concerns regarding the push for starting the mining phase so soon. There is basically no information on the flora, fauna, and ecosystems in the deep sea and seabed.”
The ISA consists of 167 member states and the European Union. The US is not an ISA member as it has not ratified the treaty but participates in the organization’s proceedings as an observer. Nauru is the sponsor of a subsidiary of The Metals Company, a Canadian-registered mining venture. If the ISA does not approve regulations by July 2023, it may be compelled to provisionally issue a mining license to The Metals Company under whatever environmental protections for the seabed are in place at the time.
“Part of the problem is that we don’t really know how sensitive these deep-sea species are to noise pollution but we do know they live in a very quiet environment generally,” said deep-sea scientist Craig Smith, a co-author of the paper and an emeritus professor at the University of Hawaii.
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