Portugal’s parliament has approved the drafting of a moratorium on deep-sea mining in territorial waters to 2050 after four parties recently presented bills, including the ruling PSD and the largest party in opposition, PS (the other two were brought by PAN and LIVRE).

The seabed around Portugal's autonomous Azores archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean is thought to be rich in rare earth metals, including manganese, cobalt, and nickel—all essential inputs for battery technology. However, lawmakers agreed that the use of heavy subsea machinery to extract minerals could be “harmful to the seabed” and that further scientific knowledge is required to assess the unknown effects of such activities.

Lawmakers will now attempt to propose a new law that will eventually be submitted to parliament for a vote. Were this to pass into law, Portugal would become the first European country to legally enforce a ban on deep-sea mining activity in national waters.

Back in October 2023, parliament approved a PAN bill imposing a moratorium on deep sea mining in Portuguese waters until 2050—but when the text was in the committee stage to be discussed, António Costa’s PS government collapsed, so the initiative lapsed.