Donald Trump wants to mine the depths of the ocean for critical minerals ubiquitous in rechargeable batteries, signing an executive order on Thursday to try to expedite mining within US and international waters. 

It’s a brash move that critics say could create unknown havoc on sea life and coastal economies, and that bucks international agreements. Talks to develop rules for deep-sea mining are still ongoing through the International Seabed Authority (ISA), a process that missed an initial 2023 deadline and has continued to stymie efforts to start commercially mining the deep sea.

“Fast-tracking deep-sea mining by bypassing the ISA’s global regulatory processes would set a dangerous precedent and would be a violation of customary international law,” Duncan Currie, legal adviser for the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition that has advocated for a moratorium on deep sea mining, said in a press statement.

The ISA was established by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. More than 160 nations have ratified the convention, but the United States has not. Ignoring the convention, the executive order Trump signed directs federal agencies to expedite the process for issuing licenses to companies seeking to recover minerals “in areas beyond national jurisdiction” in accordance with the 1980 US Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act. A country’s territorial jurisdiction only extends roughly 200 nautical miles from shore.

The Trump administration wants to work with industry “to counter China’s growing influence over seabed mineral resources,” the executive order says. However, no country has yet to commercially mine the deep ocean where depths reach about 656 feet (200 meters) in international waters. There have already been efforts to explore parts of the ocean floor rich in nickel, copper, cobalt, iron, and manganese sought after for rechargeable batteries, though, and China is a leading refiner of many critical minerals.  

China responded on Friday: the BBC reported Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun as saying that Trump’s move “violates international law and harms the overall interests of the international community.”

The Metals Company announced in March that the Canadian company had already “met with officials in the White House” and planned to apply for permits under existing US mining code to begin extracting minerals from the high seas. 

California-based company Impossible Metals asked the Trump administration earlier this month to auction off mining leases for areas off the coast of American Samoa, which would be within US-controlled waters. Trump’s executive order also directs the Secretary of the Interior to expedite the process for leasing areas for mining within US waters.

Companies seeking to exploit offshore mineral resources argue that it would cause less harm than mining on land. Their opponents contend that there’s still too little research to even understand how widespread the effects of deep sea mining could be on marine ecosystems and the people who depend on them. Recent studies have warned of “irreversible” damage and loud noise affecting sea life, and one controversial study raises questions of whether the deep sea could be an important source of “dark oxygen” for the world. 

More than 30 countries — including Palau, Fiji, Costa Rica, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, New Zealand, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom — have called for a ban or moratorium on deep-sea mining until international rules are in place to minimize the potential damage.

“The harm caused by deep-sea mining isn’t restricted to the ocean floor: it will impact the entire water column, top to bottom, and everyone and everything relying on it,” Jeff Watters, vice president for external affairs at the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy said in a press release.

As President Donald Trump takes a hatchet to the clean-energy transition, a number of hedge funds are trying to figure out how to make money on low-carbon investments that appear resilient to White House attacks.

Their preferred assets are generally located outside the US, including utilities and grid-equipment providers, the money managers said. Some also are turning to natural gas, which Europe has designated a green asset suited to enabling the transition. 

Trump’s tariff war has left investors struggling to navigate a fire hose of headlines from the White House, most of which have added to the uncertainty gripping markets. Green assets are among the most affected by the proposed tariffs, with duties and probes on imports from China and Southeast Asia set to magnify input costs for everything from batteries to power transformers and rare-earth minerals. 

Hedge fund managers interviewed said their strategy doesn’t entail shunning the US altogether, but most said they now see better opportunities in Europe and Asia.

Lisa Audet, founder and chief investment officer of Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund Tall Trees Capital Management, said she’s finding “green shoots” of investment opportunities taking shape in Europe.

Per Lekander, chief executive of $2.7 billion London-based hedge fund Clean Energy Transition LLP, said he’s long Germany’s EON SE and RWE AG, as well as UK-based SSE Plc, because “they’re entirely domestic and quite cheap.”

EON, which is one of Europe’s biggest distribution grid operators and a key plank in the bloc’s efforts to electrify its power supply, is up almost 40% this year. Similar gains are playing out across European utilities, with the Euro Stoxx Utilities Index up 16% this year, compared with the 5% decline of the MSCI ACWI Index.

Armina Rosenberg, co-founder of Sydney-based hedge fund Minotaur Capital, said she and her team have “started buying some ‘decarb’ stocks, taking advantage of the drawdown in the market.” Companies targeted include First Solar Inc. and NextEra Energy Inc., which have supply-chain setups that mean they’re protected from and “may even benefit from tariffs,” she said.

Over the next 12 to 36 months, the outlook will improve, Rosenberg said. Ultimately, the need for “innovation will necessitate capital investment,” she said.  

Companies associated with the low-carbon transition have had to grapple with tariffs and supply shortages for several years now. But the intensity of the current trade war has left investors with few places to hide. 

“We are talking to the companies, taking into account the new information, but not necessarily acting on it because we don’t know how long this information sticks for,” said Isabella Hervey-Bathurst, who manages Schroders Plc’s $2.1 billion global climate change fund. “This uncertainty is leading to slower decision-making on projects.” 

Other green investors say that after initially responding to the tariff war by moving into cash, they’re now ready to move out.

Edward Lees, who manages BNP Paribas SA’s environmental solutions fund, said he’s used the latest market selloff to buy shares of water management companies in Japan and Indian power infrastructure firms.

And despite being the main target of Trump’s tariff war, China continues to attract green investors keen to add exposure to companies such as battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. and electric car brand BYD Co.

So far this year, BYD has gained close to 50%, compared with the decline of more than 40% in Tesla Inc.

Rosenberg said Minotaur has invested in BYD, based on an assessment that “Chinese EVs are taking share from Tesla.”

Much of China’s clean-tech industry targets its local market or developing regions such as Africa, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. The US accounts for only 4% of Chinese exports of electric vehicles as well as solar and wind equipment, but remains a dominant importer of batteries together with the European Union, the analysis found.

Meanwhile, the oil industry that Trump says he wants to support is facing considerable headwinds as demand growth falters while producer nations appear intent on keeping up supplies.

That opens the door to shorting US oil and gas companies, especially shale producers, “essentially because they’re high cost,” Lekander said. “And if you go to $50 oil, the business models simply don’t work.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• Amara Nwuneli won a $12,500 Earth Prize for turning a dump into a playground in Nigeria.
• Nwuneli plans to use the award money to build three more parks.
• She hopes the green spaces can help clean up trash and combat extreme heat and flooding.

A teenager in Nigeria just won an international award for using recycled materials to transform a trash-dumping ground into a park with a playground, and she's not stopping there.

On Wednesday, 17-year-old Amara Nwuneli was awarded $12,500 in the 2025 Earth Prize competition, which casts a worldwide net for teenagers working on projects for environmental sustainability. The program provides mentorship and support for teens like Nwuneli to further develop their ideas.

Nwuneli said she plans to use the prize money to build three more parks.

"I'm excited for the future," she told Business Insider.

She wants to create more green spaces and shade in Lagos, a city of 17 million people where less than 3% of the land area is green, according to a 2023 analysis.

As cities get hotter across the planet, green space is critical. Trees and vegetation provide shade, which cools the ground, but they also help reflect sunlight away and release moisture. Unlike pavement, green spaces don't absorb much heat, but they do absorb rainwater and help reduce flooding.

Parks and greenery are also good for human health. Studies suggest they can help cut pollution exposure, improve mood, and even reduce mortality.

Turning a dump into a playground

Nwuneli became concerned about the climate crisis after floods overwhelmed her home in 2020, displacing her family. She said her parents' spice business was affected too, since the rains washed away crops.

As a self-described "theater kid," she wanted to get the story out, so she started recording and sharing videos about the floods. She says her efforts raised 2 million Nigerian Naira (roughly $5,000 in 2020 dollars) to help rebuild two local schools.

That was the beginning of the youth NGO she founded, called Preserve Our Roots. They produced a documentary about the climate crisis in Africa in 2023, which you can watch on Youtube.

She said the reaction to her documentary made her want to help Nigerians connect more with the environment.

"People came to us and was like, but I don't see it in my community. I don't see nature," Nwuneli said.

So the group decided to bring the nature home — starting with a small park that wouldn't require a lengthy government approval process.

At a site in Ikota, Nigeria, Nwuneli worked with local artisans to procure reclaimed metal and wood, as well as tires that were laying around the area, to build a slide, swings, and climbing wall.

The area, which Nwuneli described as a slum, is flood-prone. Indeed, many of the surrounding houses are built on stilts, she said. So, with the help of donations and volunteers, Nwuneli's NGO planted flood-resistant trees around the playground — among 300 trees she says they planted across the wider area.

They first homed in on this dump site in November. On March 1, they opened the park for schoolchildren.

"I remember when the children were like, 'now something we can actually call beautiful.' It kind of broke my heart," Nwuneli said.

In her eyes, though, this is just a pilot park.

A Central Park for Lagos

With the Earth Prize funding, Nwuneli is planning three more parks. They won't be playgrounds like the one that opened in March, she says, but multi-functional community hubs with gardens, greenhouses, and waste collection sites.

She's aiming to convert a large landfill in Lagos, pending government approval. For the other two parks, she's targeting the neighboring Nigerian states of Ogun and Oyo, which are also experiencing floods and droughts that will likely get worse as global temperatures rise.

"I'm not satisfied. I feel like every community needs this," Nwuneli said.

Her ultimate dream, she added, is to have a Central Park in Lagos.

The Earth Prize chooses winners for seven world regions. Nwuneli is the winner for Africa. A public vote opens on Saturday to select a global winner.

A pair of studies analyzing the effects of AI on our planet have been released and the news is fairly grim. Greenpeace studied the emissions generated from the production of the semiconductors used in AI chips and found that there was a fourfold increase in 2024. This analysis was completed using publicly available data.

Greenpeace

Many of the big chipmakers like NVIDIA rely on companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and SK Hynix Inc. for the components of GPUs and memory units. Most of this manufacturing happens in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, where power grids are primarily reliant on fossil fuels. This accounts for some of the increase in global emissions. The organization also says that global electricity requirements for AI could experience a 170-fold increase by 2030. 

Greenpeace

Greenpeace’s estimates have led some to worry that the AI race could derail global decarbonization goals, according to a report by Bloomberg. The nonprofit recommends that governments in eastern Asia transition to renewable power for chip manufacturing, but the opposite seems to be happening. South Korea recently announced plans to build plants for four gigawatts of gas-fired power generation. Taiwan has used the increased power demand related to AI as an excuse to expand liquid natural gas projects and grid infrastructure.

Another study by The International Energy Agency (IEA) took a look at the US. The analysis suggested that power consumption by AI-adjacent data centers could account for half of the growth in electricity demand by 2030. As a matter of fact, the US economy could be on track to consume more electricity for processing data than for manufacturing all energy-intensive goods combined. This includes aluminum, steel, cement and chemicals.

IEA

Electricity demand from global data centers could more than double by 2030 to around 945 terawatt-hours (TWh). That’s more than the entire electricity consumption of Japan. It’s a whopping 30 times more than the electricity consumption of Ireland.

Proponents of AI say that the massive energy needs will eventually abate as the technology leads to scientific discoveries that accelerate innovation in fields like batteries and solar photovoltaic (PV) technology. However, that’s a big fat maybe.