Nauru Says Deep Sea Mining And Ocean Conservation Can Coexist

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18-06-2025

Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific Journalist
Ocean conservation and deep sea mining are not in conflict, Nauru's climate change minister has told leaders at the United Nations Ocean Conference.
Asterio Appi said Nauru sees the extraction of metals from deep sea nodules as essential for the increased production of electricity as the world moves away from fossil fuels.
"Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development," Appi said.
Deep sea mining involves extracting potato size rocks called nodules - which are packed full of valuable metals - from the seafloor many kilometres deep.
Earlier this month, Nauru updated its commercial agreement with Canadian mining group The Metals Company for deep sea mining in international waters.
It comes at a time of increasing uncertainty in the deep sea mining industry with both the United States and International Seabed Authority (ISA) stating each offers a licencing pathway to mine the seabed in international waters.
According to the UN's Multidimensional Vulnerability Index, Nauru is the fifth most vulnerable nation in the world.
Appi said Nauru had financial needs to address issues related to climate change and economic instability.
"Nauru considers that the sustainable use of our oceans must include the responsible recovery and extraction of these critical energy transition metals to ensure supply chain security," he said.
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The five-day Ocean Conference in Nice - co-hosted by France and Costa Rica - concluded on on Friday.
One of the key aims was to get the High Seas Treaty ratified by 60 countries to bring it into force.
Fifty countries had ratified it by Friday, with a dozen more promising to do so by the end of the year.
Vanuatu's Climate Change Adaptation Minister Ralph Regenvanu told journalists that fossil fuel reduction did not feature enough at the conference.
"It's the single greatest cause of the damage to the oceans that we're seeing now and we're not talking about it enough."
He said the Pacific is living through a climate emergency every day.
"You're recovering, you're coming to the next one, you're facing another one. You're preparing for something, for example a lot of people living on the cost can no longer access fresh water like they used to, so just basic things being affected.
"Those of us who are the most climate vulnerable now are simply living the future that we're all going to get one day."
Tuvalu's Prime Minister Feleti Teo said he was an "optimist by nature" and believed the conference had contributed to the climate change conversation.
However, Teo said he wanted to see more action from the big emitters.
"As a small island developing country, we don't have that influence to pressure them to change their policies, but we need to sustain the pressure and meeting of this sort give us that opportunity to continue to tell that story."
He said the ocean means everything to the people of Tuvalu.
New Zealand committed NZ$52 million dollars to strengthen ocean governance in the Pacific.
But the country's environment and climate change ministry chief executive said Australia and New Zealand's fossil fuel expansion raises questions about their respect, or lack of it towards the ocean.
"If Australia and New Zealand are going to expand oil and gas that sends a very strong signal that the agreements or decisions that they have made internationally are not upheld," Sivendra Michael said.
"So who do we hold to account? Are there any government mechanisms that we can legislatively or through the judicial system, take them to court?"
Michael said legislation is also needed to hold countries to account for trans-boundary waste, like if the Great Pacific Garbage Patch enters into a countries exclusive economic zone.