NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga -- More than 4 kilometers beneath the surface of the north Pacific Ocean lies what the tiny island of Nauru sees as a vast treasure chest -- a seabed studded with minerals that could pioneer an economic transformation for remote nations around the region. For others, accessing the trove would trigger environmental disaster.
Even as Pacific island countries remain poles apart on the issue of deep-sea mining of metals that are crucial to the global energy transition away from fossil fuels, the clock is ticking.
