Gold Rush for the Pacific Seabed
Maia Ingoe (she/her)
Last month, the New Zealand Government announced a rebate scheme for electric vehicles called the Clean Car Discount—the start of “fundamental shifts” towards zero-carbon New Zealand, according to Climate Change Minister James Shaw. The policy has been a long time coming after being blocked by NZ First when it was first introduced in 2019. The Clean Car Discount, introduced on July 1, is on a sliding scale depending on a car’s level of emissions—the lower the emissions, the more money you can get towards a new car from the Government. In short, the discount incentivises electric vehicles by way of lowering their price. The push towards environmentally friendly vehicles follows the release of the Climate Change Commission's final report, which stated that all imported cars must be electric by 2035 to significantly cut transport emissions. Transport emissions is one of the easiest areas to cut down according to the report, and the Government has placed a huge focus on this area thus far.
The Clean Car Discount is the biggest climate policy announcement in New Zealand since the Zero Carbon Bill, and it has not been without controversy. The biggest opposing view is that the scheme will unfairly hurt farmers and low-income groups, for whom electric vehicles (EVs) might be unsuitable or unaffordable. The move has been largely welcomed by environmental advocates as a tangible step forward to a zero-carbon New Zealand. Some, such as Greenpeace, have noted that investment in public transport is also crucial to reduce these emissions—transitioning to EVs without reducing our high rates of private vehicle use will not create a sustainable future.
While concerns about diesel-powered work vehicles were abound after the announcement, one area facing harmful consequences from our uptake of electric vehicles was missing from discussions: the Pacific seabed.
Electric vehicles are not a zero-carbon technology. Most of their emissions are created in the manufacturing process, well before they are gliding down New Zealand highways. To assemble those highly sought-after EV batteries, rare minerals such as cobalt and lithium are essential, and these are often hard to find and difficult to extract. Fortunately for the electric vehicle industry, a new resource frontier is up for grabs, one that is mostly unexplored and unexploited by mining technologies—the Pacific Ocean. Here, poly-metallic nodules have been discovered in high quantities. These nodules are composed of manganese, copper, nickel, and cobalt—all of which are essential for the production of electric vehicles. Seabed mining is required to harvest them, a practice surrounded by destructive environmental impacts and scarce research. Activists are calling it continued exploitation of vulnerable nations in the Pacific; companies are calling it a legacy for future generations.
From the perspective of commercial interest, the prospect of mining the Pacific seabed is exciting. The Metals Company, formerly DeepGreen Metals, is a major party interested in the Pacific seabed, and already holds contracts with Kiribati, Tonga, and Nauru. They see an opportunity to create a renewable future for generations to come through the mining of sea-floor metals, according to the mission statement on the company’s website.
However, many Pacific scientists warn against jumping into seabed mining, because there is simply not enough research about its environmental impacts and about the deep sea itself. With 80% of the ocean remaining unexplored, it is the least understood region of Earth. Research we do have on seabed mining compares it to land-based mining. Compared in this way, seabed mining has significantly fewer impacts, with little waste and emissions. However, it has devastating environmental impacts unique to the ocean. Seabed mining involves a process similar to raking over the seafloor, producing huge underwater sedimentary plumes which smother seabed life for decades. When so much of the deep sea remains unknown to us, there is a high chance of destroying ecosystems before we even realise they exist.
Potential impacts are not limited to the environment. The social and economic consequences of land-based mining have been well researched. The “resource curse” is the theory of how resource-rich countries have limited economic growth and social development, while the profits and benefits of extraction are reaped by private, offshore companies. This could easily replicate with the onset of mining in the ocean.
The Metals Company is not the first company to show interest in the Pacific seabed; before its formation, seabed mining company Nautilus Minerals staged the Solwara-1 project in Papua New Guinea in 2019. The exploration failed, leaving environmental damage and costing the PNG Government over 157 million (AUD). Minority Rights International reported in 2020 how mining exploration has left lasting impacts on PNG indigenous peoples and their ability to continue subsistence fishing there. Some directing officials of The Metals Company were previously employed by Nautilus, before they jumped ship and formed their venture.
The commercial push forward with seabed mining, in part driven by the need for materials to create the zero-carbon transition, has been opposed by activists and Pacific Islanders alike. Calls for a ten-year moratorium on seabed mining began after the failed Solwara-1 project, with the PNG Prime Minister supporting such a moratorium in 2019. A moratorium is the suspension of an activity embedded in law for a temporary period to resolve issues.
Calls for a moratorium are supported by activist organisations, including the Pacific Islands Association of Non-Governmental Organisations, World Wildlife Fund, and the Deep-Sea Mining Campaign. Household names such as David Attenborough have thrown their support behind a ban. In April 2021, the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior confronted a DeepGreen Metals vessel in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, to bring attention to the widespread opposition to their presence in the Pacific.
In March 2021, The Pacific Regional NGO Alliance of Church and Civil society groups launched a campaign to stop seabed mining, calling for a global ban on the practice. Their “Pacific Blue Line” statement has been signed by activists and organisations across the Pacific. The statement says Pacific people are custodians of the Pacific Ocean and they must protect it from extraction and destruction. “As custodians of the responsibility to protect the Ocean against its exploitation and destruction in our time, we have a moral obligation and longstanding legacy to uphold”, the Blue Line statement says. Such extraction would benefit powerful companies and harm Pacific people, the campaign claims. The statement goes on to say that deep-sea mining is greenwashed by the need for renewable technologies, which could be sourced through recycling and reuse programs, rather than destructive extraction. The activist campaign to stop deep-sea mining in the Pacific is only beginning to gain momentum, but as of yet no decisive action has been taken by any Government.
In 2019, on a panel about ocean conservation, Jacqueline Evans called out the hypocrisies of climate action. She asked how we could be using climate justice to focus on Pacific regions without considering how climate action itself will be at the Pacific’s expense. Cobalt, she said, is essential for the production of electric vehicles, and mining the Pacific seabed is needed to harvest it. It was the first time I became aware of the seabed mining problem. Jacqueline Evans used to be the director of the Cook Islands’ Marae Moana, the world’s largest marine reserve that covers the entire Cook Islands’ exclusive economic zone. She claims she lost that job because she spoke in favour of a moratorium on seabed mining.
In lowering emissions through widespread uptake of EVs, with the aim of preventing the worst outcomes of this crisis, nations such as New Zealand are asking the Pacific to bear the environmental, social, and economic impacts of seabed mining. We not only ask the Pacific to bear the consequences of fossil fuel dependence, but also the transition out of it—a transition which will largely benefit nations like New Zealand, allowing us to keep our current high-energy lifestyles.
While solutions to the seabed mining problem have not been thoroughly investigated, the calls from Pacific leaders are clear: a moratorium is needed in order to safeguard the Pacific from a rapidly growing industry. There is no easy answer to the question of seabed mining and electric vehicles; EVs will likely play a part in New Zealand's zero-carbon transition, as we are dependent on private vehicle use in many ways. But, our actions are undeniably at the expense of the Pacific.