Norway could become the first country in the world to push ahead with deep sea mining after it voted Tuesday to open its waters for exploration, provoking an outcry from environmental groups. <\/p>\n
In a major step towards kicking off commercial deep sea mining, the country\u2019s parliament formally agreed to allow the exploration of around 108,000 square miles of Arctic seabed, an area bigger than the United Kingdom, between Norway and Greenland. <\/p>\n
The deep ocean, one of the world\u2019s last untouched habitats, has long been eyed for its vast trove of <\/strong>resources \u2014 including copper, cobalt, zinc and gold \u2014 which are needed for the green economy, used in everything from wind turbines to electric vehicle batteries. <\/p>\n A Norwegian study last year found a \u201csubstantial\u201d amount of metals and minerals on the seabed of the country\u2019s extended continental shelf. <\/p>\n Proponents of deep sea mining argue that extracting these raw materials from beneath the ocean will allow a faster transition to a low-carbon economy and could come at a lower environmental <\/strong>cost <\/strong>than terrestrial mining. <\/p>\n But scientists say very little is still known about the depths of the world\u2019s oceans \u2014 only a small fraction of which humans have explored \u2014 and many are concerned about the impacts on these ecosystems already affected by pollution, trawling and the climate crisis. <\/p>\n The deep ocean in this region is home to a huge number of marine species, from krill to whales, as well as deep sea animals, many of which have not yet been discovered by humans. \u201cWe do not know what we risk losing for the exact reason that we do not know what the deep sea holds,\u201d Pleym said. <\/p>\n The Norwegian government has said that seabed minerals offer an exciting new industry and \u201cextraction will only be permitted if the industry can demonstrate that it can be done in a sustainable and responsible manner.\u201d <\/p>\n But other countries have urged caution, including the United Kingdom, which last year announced its support for a moratorium on deep sea mining. <\/p>\n In November, more than 100 European politicians wrote an open letter to the Norwegian parliament, urging it to vote against deep sea mining. The letter referred to the risks to marine life and the potential for accelerating climate change by disturbing the carbon locked up in the sea floor. <\/p>\n Another open letter, signed by more than 800 scientists from around the world, has called for a pause in deep sea mining, saying it risks causing losses \u201cthat would be irreversible on multi-generational timescales.\u201d <\/p>\n In December, Norwegian politician Baard Ludvig Thorheim told Reuters that the environmental bar for deep sea mining had been set high. \u201cWe believe, and hope, it will become the international standard for this activity,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n It remains unclear how fast a deep sea mining industry might spring up in Norway. It may be a matter of months before exploration starts, Pleym said. <\/p>\n But parliament will still need to approve the issuing of mining licenses to begin extraction. \u201cThere will be another vote before actual mining begins,\u201d said Kaja L\u00f8nne Fj\u00e6rtoft, WWF-Norway\u2019s deep sea mining expert. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a concern shared by the European Academies of Science Advisory Council, an association of national academies of science. \u201cThe narrative that deep-sea mining is essential to meeting our climate targets and thus a green technology is misleading,\u201d Michael Norton, EASAC environment director, said in a statement last year. <\/p>\n Norway\u2019s decision to greenlight deep sea mining comes in the context of a wider debate about whether international waters should also be opened up to the practice. <\/p>\n The International Seabed Authority, the UN-affiliated body which regulates seabed extraction, is expected to finalize rules on mining in international waters next year. <\/p>\n\n Norway could become the first country in the world to push ahead with deep sea mining after it voted Tuesday to open its waters for exploration, provoking an outcry from environmental groups. In a major step towards kicking off commercial deep sea mining, the country\u2019s parliament formally agreed to allow the exploration of around 108,000 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}