The international agency charged with regulating seabed mining elected a U.N. environmental regulator to replace a leader accused of too-close industry ties.
An election over the future of a United Nations-affiliated organization could determine whether the Pacific Ocean floor will soon be mined for metals used in electric vehicles.
The decision in Parliament, opposed by environmentalists, will allow prospectors to start surveying the country’s waters.
Efforts to extract the metals used in car batteries have been pushed off amid pressure from environmentalists and nations that oppose them.
Efforts to extract the metals used in car batteries have been pushed off amid pressure from environmentalists and nations that oppose them.
A scramble to mine the deep sea could soon commence. And once it begins, there will be little hope of reining it in.
A scramble to mine the deep sea could soon commence. And once it begins, there will be little hope of reining it in.
Mining in parts of the Pacific Ocean was meant to benefit poor countries, but an international agency gave a Canadian company access to prized seabed sites with metals crucial to the green energy revolution.