Deep Sea Mining

Does deep-sea mining pose an unjustifiable environmental and existential risk?

Thousands of metres beneath the surface, vast fields of polymetallic nodules, rich in nickel, cobalt, manganese and copper, lie scattered across the seabed. These minerals are critical to batteries, renewable energy systems and the technologies driving the global energy transition. For some governments and companies, deep-sea mining represents a strategic and financial opportunity: a way to secure supply chains and reduce dependence on terrestrial mining.

But the abyssal plains are also one of the least understood ecosystems on Earth.

Scientists warn that mining operations could disturb habitats that have taken millions of years to form, with unknown consequences for deep-sea biodiversity and the ocean’s wider ecological systems. Recovery, they argue, could take centuries, if it happens at all. At the same time, regulators and governments are racing to establish rules that would allow commercial extraction to begin.

Who and what decides whether the seabed is mined?

What do we know about the ecological risks, and what remains uncertain?

And is deep-sea mining necessary to support the global shift to clean energy, or are alternatives such as recycling and new battery technologies a viable path?

This Environmental Frontline discussion in partnership with The Charles Douglas-Home Memorial Trust brings together leading voices from science, industry, policy and environmental law to examine one of the most consequential environmental decisions of the coming decade and ask the question “Does deep-sea mining pose an unjustifiable environmental and existential risk?” 

The conversation will explore the geopolitical stakes, the scientific evidence, and the governance challenges surrounding deep-sea mining, and ask what should happen next as the world faces a choice between exploiting a new resource frontier and protecting one of the planet’s last largely untouched ecosystems.

Moderated by Jeevan Vasagar, Climate Editor of The Observer and the author of The Surge: The Race Against the Most Destructive Force in Nature.

Louisa Casson is Global Project Leader for Greenpeace International, and is currently leading Greenpeace’s work to stop deep sea mining from starting. She spearheaded Greenpeace’s global strategy to win political support for a landmark high seas treaty and the commitment to protect at least 30% of the ocean by 2030, and has led Greenpeace campaigns that secured industry agreements to protect Antarctic waters from fishing pressures. She has led expeditions on Greenpeace ships across the Atlantic, in the Pacific and to the Antarctic Ocean, working with scientists and activists to bear witness to environmental pressures. With a background in climate activism, Louisa led advocacy coalitions at E3G to influence European climate ambition and diplomacy ahead of the Paris Agreement, and subsequently worked as a policy advisor on climate & energy in Parliament.

Luke McMillan is an environmental journalist whose work has appeared in The Guardian, BBC Wildlife and Oceanographic. He is the founder of Ocean Rising, an independent outlet established as a rigorous, agenda-free source for ocean accountability journalism, and serves as Head of Hunting and Captivity at Whale and Dolphin Conservation.