GSR’s managing director Kris Van Nijen was invited to contribute to #WEF20 panel discussion on seabed minerals. Kris was alongside international experts, such as the environmental lawyer Duncan Currie, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of MIT’s Environmental Dynamics Lab Thomas Peacock, campaigner and oceanographer Sylvia Earle and Professor Richard Herrington, Head of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum (NHM). The panel comprised marine biologist Dr Diva Amon from NHM, Jennifer Morgan, an executive director of Greenpeace International, and Christopher Wllise, the chief sustainability officer of Hewlett Packard. The topics discussed were broad ranging and the debate was extremely constructive. The panel addressed critical issues such as the increasing demand for critical metals posed by unprecedented population growth, urbanization and low carbon technologies; the governance of international waters and associated challenges; the need to protect 30 per cent of the oceans by 2030 and how – should the sea bed minerals industry get to commercialisation – we can ensure that such activities are equitable for humanity, from an environmental, societal and economic perspective. GSR continues to collaborate with scientific partners, NGOs and policy makers to work through the extensive and complex issues relating to deep sea exploration.