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MIDAS joins debate on the future of deep-sea mining

News date: 
April 23, 2015

A number of MIDAS partners recently attended an expert workshop titled “Deep-Sea Mining: an uncertain future?” in Berlin on 15-16 April 2015. The meeting was organised by Jeff Ardron from the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies based in Potsdam and attracted 24 participants from a wide range of backgrounds, including MIDAS partners Phil Weaver (Seascape), Henry Ruhl and Jeff Ardron (NOC), John Jamieson (Geomar), Kristina Gjerde (Wycliffe Management) and Matt Gianni (Gianni Consultancy) 

The workshop examined the sustainability of deep-sea mining from the perspectives of economics, environment and society, focusing on: 1) the socio-economic lessons learnt from land and offshore petroleum, contrasting these to the realities faced by small island developing states; 2) environmental obligations, especially in the light of the recent decisions by New Zealand declining two offshore mining applications, and 3) the social contract of the common heritage of mankind (captured in the Law of the Sea Treaty and the Part XI agreement) that could still, more than fifty years after its inception, affect the regulatory and business environment for DSM.

An account of the meeting can be found on the IASS Potsdam website.