Environmental News from Europe:
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday a legal framework was needed to stop deep-sea mining from going ahead and urged countries to put their money on science to better understand and protect the world’s oceans.
There is growing international interest in deep-sea mining but there is also pressure from some environmental groups and governments to either ban it or ensure it only goes ahead if appropriate regulations are in place.
Deep-sea mining would involve using heavy machinery to suck up off the ocean floor potato-sized rocks or nodules that contain cobalt, manganese, and other rare metals mostly used in batteries.
“We have … to create the legal framework to stop high sea mining and to not allow new activities putting in danger these ecosystems,” Macron said at an event on the sidelines of the U.N. Ocean Conference in Lisbon.
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Source: Reuters