Deep-sea mining 'needs rules'

Race for minerals puts seabed at risk, writes AFP

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World leaders on Monday called for strict rules to govern deep-sea mining and warned against racing to exploit the ocean floor in a thinly veiled rebuke of US President Donald Trump.

Growing anxiety over Mr Trump's uni-lateral push to fast-track deep-sea mining in international waters shot to the surface at the opening of the UN Ocean Conference in southern France.

“I think it’s madness to launch predatory economic action that will disrupt the deep seabed, disrupt biodiversity, destroy it and release irrecoverable carbon sinks — when we know nothing about it,” said French President Emmanuel Macron.

Imposing a moratorium on seabed mining was “an international necessity”, said Mr Macron.

The number of countries opposed to seabed mining rose to 36 on Monday, according to a tally kept by the Deep-Sea Conservation Coalition, an umbrella group of non-governmental organisations.