A plan by Donald Trump to lease millions of hectares of seabed in the Pacific for deep-sea mining reportedly contravenes international law. The proposal is said to go against the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), which has been ratified by 171 countries and the European Union.
Although the US has not ratified Unclos, it has agreed to abide by its rules and procedures since 1982. Under Unclos, deep-sea mining cannot proceed until an international code on environmental assessments and an international agreement on sharing economic benefits among all countries have been reached. These agreements have not yet been finalised by the International Seabed Authority, the body responsible for their development.
Guy Standing, author of The Blue Commons: Rescuing the Economy of the Sea, has called for the UK government and other signatories to Unclos to protest against the plan.