But authors of the new report — and other experts — say that’s untrue. They argue that technological innovation, dedicated recycling of e-waste, and laws that enable consumers to extend the lifetime of their electronic products, can fill the need.

“I would agree with the deep sea mining industry that climate change is our biggest planetary challenge, our gravest threat... if there was a thing that deserves the title of existential crisis, it would be that,” said Douglas McCauley, an associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at UC Santa Barbara, who was not involved in the report.

But, he said, “It’s a deception, a lie that if we want to tackle climate change or make meaningful climate action that we therefore have to mine the oceans.”

In 2021, the Pacific Island nation of Nauru, in partnership with the Mineral Co., notified the International Seabed Authority — an intergovernmental body of 167 member states and the European Union established under the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)— of plans to begin mining in international waters. The move triggered the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea’s “two-year rule,” which required the board’s 36-member council to consider and provisionally approve mining applications by July 9, 2023.

The council missed that deadline and ended its meeting without finalizing regulations. The council is now working to adopt regulations by 2025.

Next month, the council will begin deliberations in Jamaica, and environmentalists are hoping to persuade it to ban deep sea mining, or at least issue a moratorium.

They say that innovations in battery technology and production, as well as recycling and right-to-repair laws, will make the need to pursue this destructive practice obsolete.

“Why go destroy one place and jump to the next place to destroy it to get new minerals, when suddenly we have new technologies that help us actually increase circularity and close the loop, pulling materials out of the stockpiles we already have,” said McCauley.

According to the report, consumers throw away more copper and cobalt in discarded electronic waste every year than could be produced through the year 2035 by the Metals Co. in the Clarion Clipperton Zone.

And they say extending the life of electronic products through repair and reuse could reduce the need for new materials. For instance, doubling the lifetime of a product can reduce demand by 50%, while increasing product lifespans by just half can reduce demand by one-third.

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