NICE: World leaders on Monday called for global rules to govern the seabed and warned against racing to exploit the ocean floor in a thinly-veiled rebuke of US President Donald Trump.

Growing anxiety over Trump’s unilateral push to fast-track deep-sea mining in international waters shot to the surface at the opening of the UN Ocean Conference in France.

“I think it’s madness to launch predatory economic action that will disrupt the deep seabed, disrupt biodiversity, destroy it and release irrecoverable carbon sinks — when we know nothing about it,” said French President Emmanuel Macron. Imposing a moratorium on seabed mining was “an international necessity”, said Macron.

The number of countries opposed to seabed mining rose to 36 on Monday, according to a tally kept by the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, an umbrella group of non-governmental organisations.

Trump was not among the roughly 60 heads of state and government in Nice but his spectre loomed large as leaders defended the global multilateralism he has spurned.

Guterres urges ratification of the High Seas Treaty to protect planet’s fragile oceans

Of particular concern, his move to sidestep the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and issue permits directly to companies wanting to extract nickel and other metals from waters beyond US jurisdiction.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called for “clear action” from the seabed authority to end a “predatory race” to exploit the ocean floor. “We now see the threat of unilateralism looming over the ocean. We cannot allow what happened to international trade to happen to the sea,” he said.

The deep sea, Greenland and Antarctica were “not for sale”, Macron said in further remarks directed clearly at Trump’s expansionist claims. The ISA, which has jurisdiction over the ocean floor outside national waters, is meeting in July to discuss a global mining code to regulate mining in the ocean depths.

UN Secretary General Antonio Gu­terres said he supported these negotiations and urged caution as countries navigate these “new waters on seabed mining”. “The deep sea cannot become the wild west,” he said, to applause from the plenary floor.

He urged world leaders to ratify a treaty that would allow nations to establish protected marine areas in international waters, warning that human activity was destroying ocean ecosystems.

Guterres cautioned that illegal fishing, plastic pollution and rising sea temperatures threatened delicate ecosystems and the people who depend on them. “The ocean is the ultimate shared resource. But we are failing it,” Guterres said, citing collapsing fish stocks, rising sea levels and ocean acidification.

‘Wave of hope’

Island nations also spoke out against seabed mining, which scientists warn could result in untold damage to ecosystems largely unexplored by humanity. “Here in Nice, we can feel that the looming threat of deep sea mining, and the recent reckless behaviour of the industry is seen by many states as unacceptable,” said Megan Randles from Greenpeace.

Macron said a global pact to protect marine life in international waters beyond national jurisdictions had received enough support to become law and was “a done deal”.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2025