„Drill, baby, drill“ – from Donald Trump's point of view, this motto obviously also applies to the oceans. The US President has signed an executive order to promote deep-sea mining in US and international waters. The aim is to reduce the huge dominance of arch-rival China in raw materials that are important for the energy transition, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper.

The timing of the decision is no coincidence. In response to US punitive tariffs, China has just stopped exporting certain rare earths to the US. These metals are indispensable in the production of many industries such as car manufacturing, the aerospace industry, and for semiconductor manufacturers. Observers therefore fear that this will have a major impact on the US economy.

The impact on the largely unexplored deep sea due to the extraction of mineral resources appears to be of secondary importance. Scientists have been warning for years about the incalculable environmental damage caused by ploughing up the seabed in search of manganese nodules, which are rich in raw materials. Flora and fauna are heavily dependent on these nodules, the clouds of sediment that are stirred up can spread over hundreds of kilometres and, last but not least, the oceans' ability to store carbon – and thus slow down climate change – is also at risk.

Because the issue is so complex, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) has been working for years on a set of rules to harmonise economic interests and environmental protection in deep-sea mining. However, before the first commercial mining licences are issued, many countries – including Germany – are calling for more research on the subject.

For the USA, this is all going too slowly. Unlike China, the country is not a member of the ISA anyway – and Trump plans to drastically cut funding for oceanic research anyway. While the USA acting alone would still be a violation of international law according to previous statements from the ISA, this is something we’ve come to expect from Trump.