Tesla Inc. investors have voted down a moratorium on sourcing electric vehicle battery metals from deep seabeds during its annual shareholder meeting, reported Bloomberg. Nonprofit As You Sow filed a proposal in December asking the shareholders to impose a ban on mining in the biodiverse ecosystem.
While commercial deep-sea mining has yet to begin, Bloomberg noted that the industry aims to extract polymetallic nodules found on the seabed, about 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) beneath the surface. The United Nations-affiliated International Seabed Authority is currently in the midst of prolonged negotiations on the regulations for deep-sea mining.
Bloomberg noted that several non-U.S. automakers, including Volvo, Volkswagen and BMW, have signed onto a deep-sea mining moratorium in cooperation with the World Wildlife Fund. Meanwhile, General Motors Co. investors recently rejected a proposal that would have required the company to publicly disclose any use of deep-sea minerals in its supply chain.
Tesla and GM’s shareholder votes come as the electric vehicle landscape faces a major shift, said Bloomberg. By the end of next year, the global battery industry will be capable of making five times more cells than demand requires, according to BloombergNEF. The nickel content of EV batteries is also forecast to drop by 25% in 2025. Those shifts, noted Bloomberg, could make mining the seabed for nickel and other minerals both environmentally dubious and economically ill-advised.
Source: Bloomberg