The Arctic Ocean’s deep-sea ecosystems will remain safe from deep-sea mining—for now. Norway had planned to begin seabed mining exploration in its national waters as early as next year, potentially wreaking havoc on fragile, ancient seabed ecosystems. However, those plans have been postponed for at least nine months, offering a temporary reprieve.
A minority party in the Norwegian parliament successfully blocked the Ministry of Energy’s initiative to issue mining permits in early 2025, following widespread protests from scientists, environmental organizations, and the fishing community. While the permitting process is on hold until after the country’s next election, some preparatory work for issuing mining licenses will continue.
Reports from the French newspaper Le Monde suggest that Norway was considering deep-sea mining to reduce dependence on China for critical minerals used in batteries, renewable energy, and electronics. However, seabed mining on a large scale would cause irreversible damage to ocean life. The mining process, which involves heavy machinery scouring vast areas of the seafloor, would destroy centuries-old ecosystems, while the noise, light, and plumes created could disrupt marine life from the surface to the seafloor.
This destruction is an unacceptable trade-off, particularly given that many of the minerals seabed mining would extract are already being discarded as e-waste at a rapidly growing rate. The amount of e-waste produced globally is far outpacing our ability to recycle it. In our June report, We Don’t Need Deep Sea Mining, we highlighted the growing problem of e-waste and its potential as an untapped source of critical minerals.
Norway itself is no stranger to this issue: it generated the highest amount of e-waste per capita in Europe in 2022, according to the U.N. E-Waste Monitor. While Norway has strong policies in place for collecting and recycling e-waste, gaps remain in the system, which means valuable materials are often lost. Despite these challenges, there is still far more e-waste piling up in landfills across Europe and the world—resources that could be repurposed before turning to destructive seabed mining.
Instead of endangering some of the planet’s most ancient and mysterious ecosystems, we should focus on keeping valuable minerals out of landfills. We can achieve this by designing products to last longer, repairing them when they break, reusing components where possible, and recycling them when all else fails.
If countries like Norway shift their focus toward a circular economy, they can reduce the need for deep-sea mining, protecting the Arctic’s precious ecosystems. The hope is that this sensible approach will prevail and that the Arctic Ocean’s ecosystems can continue to thrive for millennia to come.
