marine conservation

2 June, 2022

The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative published a new briefing paper addressing the potential devastating environmental impacts and significant risks of financing or supporting deep-sea mining activities. Designed for banks, insurers and investors, the paper highlights that the financing of deep-sea mining activities is not consistent with UNEP FI’s Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles and therefore strongly discourages financial institutions to support this nascent sector.

Indeed, the deep sea contains many of the most pristine ecosystems on our planet and plays a crucial role in regulating the climate and mitigating climate change. Plans to mine this unique and complex area of our planet would create irreversible ecosystem and habitat loss, as well as permanently destroy invaluable carbon storage.

This briefing paper is designed to help banks, insurers and investors stay away from unsustainable economic activities and consider their portfolios in light of the damaging nature of deep-sea mining activities. It is the last of a series of briefing papers on harmful marine extractives, following papers on dredging & marine aggregate extraction and offshore oil and gas.

UNEP FI convenes a global financial community focused on the ocean and sustainable use of marine resources. Discover its range of resources for financial institutions on shipping, seafood, ports, marine renewable energy, coastal tourism, ocean-linked waste management and coastal infrastructure.

Read the full paper here.

27 May, 2022

Source: Counter Punch

Author: Julia Barnes

Even as the ocean struggles under the assaults of industrial fishing, ocean warming, pollution, and acidification, corporations are pushing to exploit it in a new and dangerous way.

Deep sea mining includes plans to extract polymetallic nodules from the sea floor. Commercial exploitation could begin as early as 2024. It would involve house-sized machines indiscriminately extracting the contents of the seabed, sending the material to a ship at the surface, processing, and subsequently dumping a slurry of wastewater back into the ocean.

Continue reading Stop Deep Sea Mining Before it Happens

29 April, 2022

Source: Eco-business

Author: Robin Hicks

Credit Suisse has committed to rule out financing deep-sea mining.

The French multinational bank published new lending guidelines for sectors with high environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk on Wednesday, and declared that it would not provide any financing for the exploration or extraction of seabed minerals. 

Continue reading Credit Suisse joins growing list of banks shunning deep-sea mining