” It would be an ecological aberration that would lead to the collapse of underwater ecosystems“, estimated Monday, July 24 on BlazeTrends the French Secretary of State for the Sea, Hervé Berville, about the exploitation of coveted minerals in the deep seabed, which will be debated from Wednesday by the Assembly of the International Seabed Authority (AIFM) in Kingston, Jamaica.
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The 167 member states of this assembly will for the first time debate a ” precautionary break“now defended by some twenty countries, including France, Chile and Brazil, about this exploitation of coveted minerals, nestled in the deep seabed of areas outside national jurisdictions under its control. ” It will be a question of what is for us the fight of the century for the protection of the oceans“, said Hervé Berville on BlazeTrends.
“How can we really carry out an ecological transition if we are going to destroy ecosystems to power batteries or new technologies?”.
Herve Bervilleat BlazeTrends
” The oceans are key in the climate fight“, he added. ” What we carry is that we do not have enough knowledge to say that it will not have consequences on the ecosystems. You have to take the time“. According to the Secretary of State, ” more people have been to the moon than people who have been less than 4,000 meters underground“.
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” A year ago, there were only four countries against this exploitation, now we are at 21 countries“, he continued. ” The ambition is to grow this coalition of states that are in favor of a moratorium and I am reasonably optimistic even if it will be a very tough battle.“.