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Paper short abstract

Deep-sea mining in Norway is framed as necessary for the green transition. Drawing on interviews and policy analysis, this paper shows how different experts construct extraction as responsible, sustainable and future-oriented or not, shaping the moral economy of transition minerals.

Paper long abstract

With the growing demand for materials in the name of digital transitions and, more broadly, the green energy transition, the deep seabed has emerged as the next new frontier of resource extraction. In 2024, Norway moved to open parts of its continental shelf for the exploration and potential extraction of deep-sea minerals. Not surprisingly, this has been a highly contested issue.

This paper examines how knowledge of different actors is mobilized, how justifications are crafted to frame deep-sea mining as a necessary, responsible, sustainable and future-oriented activity and how opposing views are expressed.

Drawing on qualitative interviews with scientists, policy makers and civil society actors alongside an analysis of public communications, regulatory documents and environmental impact assessments, we investigate how the opening of continental shelf for exploration and potential extraction is constructed, negotiated and contested.

We show how competing kinds of expertise do not simply make an assessment of feasibility but shape the moral economy of deep-sea mineral extraction. This means negotiating what counts as responsible extraction, acceptable uncertainties, and how to balance different forms of risk. While we see multiple frictions in these narratives, we also witness that they not only turn to scientific evidence but also to competing visions of Norway’s (and Europe’s) future and its material foundations.

This paper is based on research conducted as part of the ERC Advances Grant ‘Innovation Residues: Modes and infrastructures of caring for our longue-durée environmental futures’ (Grant Agreement: 10105480).