France Puts Future of Deep Sea Mining in Doubt
The country’s call for an international ban on mining fragile ocean ecosystems disrupts negotiations to allow exploitation of the seabed to begin by 2024.
At COP27 on Nov. 7, French President Emmanuel Macron advocated a complete ban on deep sea mining.
Photographer: Islam Safwat/BloombergCiting climate change, France on Thursday called for an international ban on deep sea mining, upending negotiations by a UN-affiliated organization to allow the exploitation of unique ocean ecosystems for valuable metals to begin within two years.
“As the effects of climate change become increasingly threatening and the erosion of biodiversity continues to accelerate, today it does not seem reasonable to hastily launch a new project, that of deep seabed mining, the environmental impacts of which are not yet known and may be significant for such ancient ecosystems which have a very delicate equilibrium,” French Ambassador Olivier Guyonvarch told the International Seabed Authority at a meeting of its policymaking Council in Kingston, Jamaica.