The amendment:
- Replaces stopping of research projects to funding research that looks into better understanding our deep-sea ecosystem and whether sustainable mining would be possible in the future.
Why:
- Although we agree that harmful and unsustainable methods of (deep-sea) mining should not be encouraged or looked into, we do acknowledge that the scarcity of Rare Earth Minerals is a real problem, especially regarding their necessity for the Energy Transition. We also think that research projects regarding the deep-sea and its minerals is also important to improve our understanding of these ecosystems. However, this should not be used for harmful exploitation. Therefore, we would want to amend this to stop all research projects that encourage/support harmful and unsustainable methods of deep-sea mining, but have room for research projects looking into whether there are possibilities for a sustainable and non-harmful way of tapping into these resources.
Sources:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0558-x#Sec3
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-mine-the-oceans-sustainably/#:~:text=If%20extracted%20in%20an%20environmentally,our%20global%20clean%20energy%20goals. <- Article discussing sustainable ways