Deep-Sea Mining: A New Era of Adversarial Geopolitics Is Beginning on the Pacific Ocean
There’s a meeting being held this year in Kingston, Jamaica, from 21 March to 1 April about the prospects of deep-sea mining in the Pacific Ocean.
The United Nations International Seabed Authority (ISA) is the leading authority over deep-sea mining in the high seas, but their authority does not reach any countries exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Meanwhile, organizatons such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have strongly opposed any prospects of deep-sea mining by launching their No Deep Seabed Mining Initiative.
Water is at the heart of the globe, from both a geographical vantage point and global economic perspective. While from the perspective of the Energy Transition, it’s the lifeline to save industrial production and mitigate the grave effects to humanity derived from Climate Change.
No wonder some of the world’s largest corporations and entities are betting big on their investments in Energy Transition and E-mobility, such as hydrogen, ammonia and carbon-capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies, among others, while formulating industrial policies that are conducive to Electric Vehicle (EV) charging networks and supply chains for battery metals.
