A Canadian company wants to apply for a permit to exploit mining resources at a depth of 4,000 meters. At a meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, the International Seabed Authority will try to prevent this exploitation.
Published on 07/09/2023 17:25
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Polymetallic nodules that can be used to power batteries in the waters off Minamitorishima, Japan, April 2016. (HO/JAMSTEC)
Metal Compagny is the name of the Canadian company that wants to exploit the resources of the deep sea. It has all the equipment to harvest the minerals from 4,000 meters deep. Metal Company is due to file an operating license on Sunday, July 9th.
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The international fund authority is thus facing a coup d’etat. At a meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, this United Nations dependent agency will try to find a longer-term answer by working out a possible moratorium. “The moratorium is clearly a second blade,” argues François Chartier, who is responsible for this file at the NGO Greenpeace. “If the states do not succeed in blocking this risk of the possibility of exploitation without the idea, for us today the moratorium is the legal means to prevent exploitation in mining and to give us time. The scientific time to find out if we can go there. “
“It’s a political issue”
A little less than twenty countries, including France, are now calling for this moratorium. The process will take some time. French Ambassador for Poles and Maritime Affairs Olivier Poivre d’Arvor hopes to graduate in two years in France. “It’s a political issue. Do we want to plow 50% of the surface of the seabed with all the risks that exist? Our desire is to be united during the great conference of nations on the ocean or ‘ the COP of the oceans that will be held in Nice in June 2025, a real discussion at the level of heads of state and government, there will be a hundred, to this topic.
If the protection of the deep sea seems to be making progress today, it is undoubtedly thanks to the international agenda. This year he focused on the oceans and biodiversity. “Last December we had the COP 15, which set this goal: 30% protection of the ocean and rare earths by 2030,” recalls Anne Sophie Roux, who is part of the Alliance for a Sustainable Ocean. “We also just saw the United Nations adopt the High Seas Treaty there. So we see that there is already a global movement of recognition and increasingly important consideration of the ocean.”
If the deep sea arouses cravings, it is because they contain valuable minerals for the energy transition. Nowadays countries are subject to the regime of exploration. The first operational request could fall within a few months.
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