The abyss is not repeated. Tuesday, January 17, the National Assembly adopted by an absolute majority a resolution urging the government to establish a moratorium on the mining of our seabed.
In a remarkable speech delivered on November 7, at the 27th UN climate conference (COP27) in Egypt, Emmanuel Macron declared his opposition to the exploitation of resources from the depths of the sea. Taking him at his word, the ecologist deputy Nicolas Thierry had filed the same day its motion for a resolution.
While the exploitation of the deep sea is still experimental at world level, the Assembly asks with this text that the precautionary principle take precedence. Our elected officials thus wish « the prohibition of deep sea mining in the high seas until it has been demonstrated by independent scientific groups and with certainty that this extractive activity can be undertaken without degrading marine ecosystems and without loss of marine biodiversity”.
The resolution also calls on the government to take a stand against the issuance of new operating licenses to private companies by the International Seabed Authority (AIFM). The latter must adopt a new mining code next July, which could – or not – open the way to the mining of the seabed in search of copper, cobalt or nickel, in particular to manufacture batteries for electric cars. Within the AIFM, only a dozen States out of the 168 members have so far come out in favor of a moratorium.
Last October, for the first time in history, a company – The metals company – was authorized by the AIFM to explore the seabed (our post). The opening of a large-scale authorization could prove catastrophic, while the biodiversity of the seabed is still largely unknown, and the ocean floor contains large quantities of CO2 which could be released by human activities.
In France, 215 MPs from nine different political groups voted in favor of this text. Only six elected from the Republicans party and the National Rally group came out against it, saying it was against the interests of the country. The Secretary of State for the Sea Hervé Berville welcomed the resolution.