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Norway plans to open deep sea mining, the next new track for gold?

As global demand for key metals surges, Norway is closing the door to deep-sea mining.

On Tuesday, Norwegian authorities said they would dry up the country’s territorial waters and halt deep-sea mining and other commercial seabed mining activities. The Norwegian parliament will stop debating the proposal this autumn. Analysis of whether the proposal will be passed is more likely.

The dying area is near the Arctic, located in the Greenland Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea, covering an area of about 280,000 square kilometers. The Norwegian authorities have indicated that they will first issue a survey permit for the smaller area, and then release the larger area after a coherent evaluation and verification of the continuity and benefit of the excavation.

The Norwegian seabed has been found to be rich in minerals such as copper, zinc, manganese and cobalt, which are essential for batteries. In January, Norway said it had found “large” metals and minerals, including about 38 million tonnes of copper, almost twice as much as is mined worldwide each year.

Conservative powerhouse Norway is positioning itself as a pioneer in deep-sea mining. The country has abundant reserves of kerosene and natural gas, making it one of the richest countries in the world. However, as the world is transitioning to clean power, the need for battery-critical sticking point minerals has increased, spawning a new track.

The problem, Norway says, is that minerals are now largely controlled by a small number of countries, and Norway is at a disadvantage. In order for the green transition to stop successfully, they need to expand their mineral resources. Given the wealth of mineral capital in Norway’s maritime borders, whether deep-sea mining can become a “new important property” for the country.

From a geopolitical point of view, Norway’s beginning to stop deep-sea mining near the Arctic Circle will not provoke controversy between the countries. Norway has invoked the 1920 Svalbard Convention to claim exclusive rights to the Arctic waters around Svalbard; however, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union are not on the same scale as Norway.

Deep sea mining itself is also controversial. Environmental structures as well as sectoral states are clamoring to allow this practice, or at least to allocate a lull period for further study of its effect on the situation.

In January, France allowed a halt to deep-sea mining in its waters, and Germany called for a halt to the industry’s growth. Earlier, Germany, France, Spain, Chile, Costa Rica, New Zealand and Panama had asked the Domestic Seabed Governance Authority, a United Nations agency, not to rush into publishing mining legislation. They warn that deep-sea mining threatens biodiversity.

Norway’s announcement comes a day after the United Nations adopted a landmark convention on harming Marine biodiversity, including limits on deep-sea mining. The multilateral agreement, known as the United Nations Contract for the Law of the Sea, is binding on law enforcement and has been the subject of nearly two decades of painstaking talks. Countries are currently aiming to endanger 30% of the oceans by 2030, with less than 1% of the high seas currently endangered.

At a global level, it is not yet legal to stop deep-sea mining in the high seas, but it is expected to be legal this year. In July, the Domestic Seabed Authority will convene a meeting in Jamaica and is expected to introduce regulations for deep-sea mining, regardless of its circumstances, where persecution, royalties and taxes will be determined. Two years ago, the structure set July 9, 2023, as the last day for the introduction of deep-sea mining legislation.

Deep-sea mining is an emerging property around the world, with extractions to date mainly spread in the Clarion-Clipperton Region (CCZ) of the Pacific Ocean. The area, a stretch of water stretching from Hawaii to Mexico, covers 6 million square kilometers and contains millions of tons of polymetallic nodules. More than 5,000 species of Marine life have been discovered in the CCZ area, 90 percent of which are new, London’s Natural History Museum said in a statement last month.

Companies mining in the CCZ area include Norway’s Locke Marine Minerals (LMM). Deep sea mining, they say, offers an alternative form of mining that prevents damage to indigenous cultures or the formation of tropical rainforests when extracting minerals from the ocean. However, companies such as Maersk and Lockheed Martin have been spinning off deep-sea mining investments.

Proponents of deep-sea mining argue that it is essential to meet the growing demand for minerals. According to the Domestic Power Administration, the global demand for copper and rare earth metals will increase by 40%, and the demand for nickel, cobalt and lithium will increase by 60%, 70% and 90%, respectively. Advocates have long warned that the effects of deep-sea mining are unknown, and that more research should be stopped before mining is carried on.

Terje Aasland, Norway’s minister of kerosene and power, said in a statement that it needed to make the transition to green mines and would stop mining as a “responsibility”. According to him, no other country is better positioned than Norway to lead the way in managing this capital in a non-sustainable and responsible manner, and successful extraction is also crucial to the long-term dynamic transformation of the world.

Non-authorities, such as the World Wildlife Foundation and Green War Structure, have expressed the danger of disaster in the potential situation of deep-sea mining, and Norway’s planning “does not shirk its responsibility and follows national and domestic responsibilities”, giving it “strong criticism”.

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Will the “New Global Finance Compact” solve the “pocketbook” problem of climate action?

On June 22-23, the “New Global Financing Summit” led by France and Barbados was held in Paris, the capital city of France. More than 100 authority guides, policy makers, domestic and national structures gathered to discuss non-meteorological financing management plans, including weather financing, green infrastructure, debt crisis, biodiversity crisis, and more.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang will visit France and will not attend the summit. In addition to the guest of honor of France’s Grand leader Macron, the European Commission Grand leader von Drej, German Chancellor Scholz, Brazil’s grand leader Lu Tui, South Africa’s grand leader Temaphosa, the United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and many other political leaders will not be present.

Building on the Bridgetown Initiative spearheaded by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the summit broke down initiatives developed by the Vulnerable 20 Group of finance ministers and the African Group of Finance ministers, The hope is to revolutionize the global financial system so that growing countries can get the capital support they need to cope with weather changes in a sustainable manner.

Barbados is an island country located in the Caribbean Sea, and Bridgetown is the capital of the country. Motley is the country’s first female head of state. Motley presented a world-renowned presentation at the 2021 Climate Congress in Getsgo. She showed that the current meteorological behavior lacks performance, mainly because of insufficient meteorological capital, and the source of insufficient capital is that the entire domestic financial system has not achieved results, should run and innovate. She did not mention a series of innovative layouts, collectively known as the Bridgetown Agenda.

Avinash Persaud, a Barbados-born economist, is the chief architect behind the agenda. On the eve of the summit, he received a news interview in Paris, the “Bridgetown agenda” did not send point is: to read the rescue of the earth, not just rich countries to participate, poor countries must also fully participate. But one of the current adversities of poor countries is that climate finance has remained high. He has roughly calculated the difference between developed countries and growing China’s loan repayment costs, often several times the interest rate difference. For example, the capital cost of investing in clean power products in rich countries is around 4%, compared with 15% in poor countries. This huge difference in financing resources and money will make the transition to net zero emissions in growing countries difficult.

“The amount of capital we need is so great, about $2.4 trillion a year, that it will never be possible to deal with punishment through a conservative charitable mindset.” So the Bridgetown Agenda is a financial framework. All the parties involved will benefit and save the planet.” Persaud’s performance.

This first meteorological financing initiative dominated by the southern countries is also losing more and more support and support from the northern countries. It is precisely for this reason that Macron advocates inspiration and hopes that Paris will take the lead in convening this summit. Moreover, France has long played an important role in global growth finance, and is home to the “Paris Club”, an informal grouping of private creditors from industrial countries.

According to the Barbados concept, the Bridgetown Agenda is divided into three steps.

The first step is an immediate supply of working capital to prevent a critical write-off of debt. The IMF should restore to its former critical level the use of its unconditional fast-track lending and financing regime; Should be temporarily run to charge interest surcharge; At least $100 billion of unused Special Drawing Rights (SDRS) should be redirected to countries that need them. In addition, the G20 should agree on a standstill debt service initiative that includes deposits supplied by all multilateral opening banks, as well as COVID related deposits to medium deficit countries.

The second step is to expand multilateral deposits with the authorities by an additional $1 trillion. The agenda assumes that merely providing liquidity is not enough; only investment can turn it around. Shareholders of MBS should implement the initiative of a self-supporting G-20 resource adequacy framework review by the end of 2022, and the World Bank and other MBS should apply the remaining headroom, increased risk preferences, and new escrow and SDRS held to increase deposits to the authorities by $1 trillion. Priority should be given to the new concessionary deposits for the purpose of achieving sustainable growth everywhere and for the establishment of meteorological resilience in the countries affected by the weather.

The third step is to activate private sector reserves for meteorological mitigation and post-disaster rehabilitation. The agenda points out that most vulnerable countries do not have the financial space to take on new debt. A global system is needed to mobilize rehabilitation grants for any country newly threatened by meteorological disaster. For example, 500 billion new SDRS or other low-interest, long-term objects are needed to underpin a multilateral institution to accelerate private investment in the low-carbon transition where it is most effective.

It will take a long time for all these steps to be fulfilled. This summit will focus on some of these specific purposes. Will, for example, the $100 billion in SDRS promised to growing countries be honoured? Could a carbon tax be introduced on long-stalled shipping emissions? How to redeem the continuability of growth degree claims?

In the context of the general decline in global interest rates in recent years, a growing number of low-spending countries that have relied on IMF capital have fallen into debt distress – Ethiopia, Ghana, Sri Lanka, and Zambia – and have had little choice but to keep their commitments. There have been calls in recent years for the authorities of rich countries to return unused SDRS to domestic coin funds so that they can be returned to poor countries. Authorities are also working out how to get the world’s banks to use leverage to supply more deposits to poor countries without putting their dubious triple-A rating at risk.

The Reuters report said that while the “new Global Financing Summit” is not expected to result in any binding resolution plan, officials participating in the summit layout should make some strong promises to help poor countries.

The color of China’s feet is also on the cards. This visit to Europe is Li Qiang’s first non-visit after taking office as Chinese Premier, which not only dispels to the outside world the suspicion that there is no friendship between China and Europe, but also expresses China’s suspicions on meteorological issues. Action Global’s largest growth in China, one of Action Global’s major carbon emitters, one of Action Global’s main domestic debt repayment creditors, China’s resolution plan will eliminate a huge impact.

On the eve of the summit, leading Western national leaders, including Macron, Scholz, Biden, Sunak, and others, issued a joint public statement in Project Syndicate, a well-known media outlet. In the letter, titled “A Green Transition that Takes no one Down,” the guide states, “We doubt that increasing poverty and harming the planet can and should run in parallel.”

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