Greenpeace Challenges Dutch Government on Deepsea Mining

Plans by Swiss-Dutch offshore giant Allseas to operate machinery for deep sea mining firm The Metals Company under unilateral U.S. authorization directly violate the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), according to a legal opinion commissioned by Greenpeace Netherlands.

The legal opinion by Professor André Nollkaemper of the University of Amsterdam notes that the binding May 2026 Contract for Development Work and Commercial Production between Allseas and The Metals Company (TMC) includes activities prohibited under international law. According to Nollkaemper the threat is “no longer a hypothetical prospect but a present and advancing fact.”

Consequently, the obligation on the Dutch government to intervene “is already engaged,” as the agreement binds Allseas to an operation relying entirely on a “unilateral United States route.”

Under UNCLOS, the international seabed is protected from unilateral exploitation, granting sole regulatory jurisdiction to the International Seabed Authority (ISA). Professor Nollkaemper’s legal evaluation outlines explicit obligations to be followed by the Dutch state. In addition to being the largest strategic shareholder and investor in TMC, Allseas owns and operates the world’s only functional deep sea mining vessel, retrofitted specifically to extract mineral-rich polymetallic nodules from the abyssal ocean floor.

In response to the legal assessment, Greenpeace Netherlands, alongside five major environmental organizations, has dispatched a letter to the Dutch government demanding immediate regulatory intervention. The coalition is also demanding that the Netherlands joins the growing alliance of more than 40 nations calling for an international moratorium or precautionary pause on deep sea mining at the ISA.

A recent European Parliament’s resolution, explicitly commands EU member states to respond with appropriate measures to any attempts to bypass the ISA and take direct action against non-compliant domestic companies.