Global dispute deepens over deep sea mining as nations weigh science, sovereignty, and the ocean floor
A new round of global negotiations over commercial deep sea mining is underway in Jamaica, with growing concern from scientists and governments that environmental protections lag far behind industrial ambitions.
Teresa Tomassoni reports for Inside Climate News.
In short:
- Delegates from around the world are meeting in Kingston to negotiate the Mining Code, a regulatory framework that would permit deep sea mining for minerals like cobalt and nickel. Many nations oppose finalizing the code, citing gaps in environmental science and regulatory enforcement capacity.
- President Donald Trump’s recent executive order to fast-track U.S. deep sea mining has drawn international condemnation, especially after a Canadian company sought a U.S. license to bypass multilateral oversight.
- Advocates are calling for a moratorium on deep sea mining, citing unknown impacts on biodiversity, climate regulation, and new scientific discoveries such as polymetallic nodules that may produce oxygen in total darkness.
Key quote:
“Scientists are frequently telling us there is not enough scientific data on deep sea ecosystems and the potential impacts of deep sea mining on them to create adequate regulations for their protection.”
— Emma Wilson, policy officer at Deep Sea Conservation Coalition
Why this matters:
The deep sea plays a vital role in global climate regulation, carbon cycling, and marine biodiversity, yet most of it remains unexplored. Mining the ocean floor for metals risks disturbing fragile ecosystems that scientists barely understand. These habitats may support carbon sequestration processes essential to climate stability and could house undiscovered species or chemical processes, like oxygen production without sunlight. Extracting polymetallic nodules could disrupt the “biological carbon pump,” a key system for locking carbon in the deep ocean. Despite industry claims that these metals are needed for clean energy technologies, major companies are moving away from them. Deep sea mining could shift from a green energy argument to defense and military uses, raising questions about violating international treaties that declare the seabed “the common heritage of humankind.”
Learn more: Humans may start mining the deep sea despite limited knowledge
