Co-written by Jessica Battle
It’s World Ocean Day today! In celebration of this international day, we at MOVE want to shed light on why this day is important to us and the automotive world.
One of our biggest values at MOVE is to promote and develop sustainable urban transport. As we move towards a fossil-free transportation system, we need to ensure that our footprint on the planet is reduced, to safeguard the natural world upon which we all depend. The ocean is crucial for food, for regulating our climate and for jobs and livelihoods across the world.
However, the ocean is heavily impacted by many human activities, and now a new industry is looking at extracting minerals from the deep sea to supply the EV industry. Rocks lying below the ocean floor contain quantities of nickel, copper, manganese and cobalt – all ingredients of developing electric vehicle batteries. Because of this, some propose to open up the fragile deep seabed to source metals for the development of their batteries.
But smart climate solutions do not need deep sea minerals. Instead of adding another pressure to our ocean, investments need to go to solutions towards a circular economy.
One of our MOVE 2023 panel speakers Jessica Battle of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has been instrumental in driving the No Deep Seabed Mining petition, which calls for a global moratorium on extraction of deep seabed minerals.
Jessica Battle, Senior Expert Global Ocean Policy and Governance & Lead No Deep Seabed Mining Initiative for WWF, said:
“Electric vehicles are essential for our carbon-free future, but we cannot create climate solutions at the expense of our ocean. Deep seabed mining would be disastrous for people and nature.
“Leveraging the ingenuity that has driven the EV market thus far, we must forge a path forward that emphasises technological innovation and changes to our current patterns of consumption and waste.”
Join the businesses calling for a global moratorium on deep seabed mining: No Deep Seabed Mining (noseabedmining.org).
Other representatives from WWF are also attending our MOVE 2023 event at the London Excel 21-22 June. Meet them there and hear more about this cause on Jessica’s panel discussion. Buy your tickets to the event here.
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Octopus Energy partners with Stellantis to accelerate EV uptake
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