Last week, negotiations over how to regulate the mining of the seabed began among the 167-nation body, International Seabed Authority (ISA) which regulates the exploitation of minerals on the seabed outside national jurisdictions also known as the high seas.
The ISA is headquartered in Kingston, Jamaica is in the midst of hosting a two-week council session which began on March 16 to discuss the adoption of a mining code which has been in the works for nearly a decade. However, its chief has recently come under fire for supposedly ignoring proposals by other diplomats and pushing them to approve the start of deep-sea mining.
What has been happening at the ISA?
The ISA works under the authorisation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which allows the 167-nation body to control seabeds outside the territorial waters of nations. “We come together now with the work on the mining code, well advanced and with six weeks of negotiating before us this year”, said a British lawyer and head of the UN-affiliated body Michael Lodge.
ISA has recently faced pressure from the tiny Pacific nation, Nauru, said a report by AFP. Notably, the exploitation of seafloor minerals is not expected to begin until the adoption of a mining code, the discussion of which has lasted for almost 10 years now but in June 2021 the island nation triggered a clause which allowed it to demand the adoption of these rules within two years.
The decision taken by ISA is also being closely watched as it comes amid several landmark treaties signed in favour of protecting the environment. This includes the landmark UN High Seas Treaty which was adopted, earlier this month, to protect oceans and seabeds outside national jurisdiction.
Following the historic UN Biodiversity Conference which aims to protect 30 per cent of the Earth’s land and water by 2030, late last year. “With these global milestones, the pressure is now on the ISA council to deliver,” said Lodge, as per AFP.
As the two-week council session in Jamaica is underway, the ISA chief has been criticised by diplomats who have claimed that he has been pushing them to accelerate the process of beginning deep-sea mining. According to a report by the New York Times, the British lawyer who has a duty of neutrality has supposedly been ignoring measures proposed by some council members which could potentially slow down approval of the first mining proposals.
Additionally, not all countries are in favour of beginning seabed extraction and raised concerns like a lack of knowledge on the impact of disturbing the ocean floor. Germany and Costa Rica have also joined France, Spain, Chile, New Zealand and several Pacific nations which have expressed these concerns and called for a “precautionary pause” or a ban on mining in the high seas.
The 167-nation body will soon receive an application for commercial seabed mining, which makes the decision about the mining code all the more important as it would govern the process. According to the Guardian, Lodge has previously indicated that the impact of seabed mining is “predictable and manageable”.
In response to the story in the New York Times, Costa Rica’s representative to the ISA, Gina Guillén Grillo took to Twitter, on Monday (March 20) and said “Decisions must come from them & must not be pushed by those who have only administrative duties. Mining the seabed cannot be rushed (because) of the economic interests of a few.”
Similarly, Franziska Brantner, Germany’s minister for economic affairs and climate action, in a letter to Lodge also said, “It is not the task of the secretariat to interfere in the decision making. In the past, you have actively taken a stand against positions and decision-making proposals from individual delegations,” reported the Guardian. It added that Germany was “seriously concerned about this approach.”
How did Lodge respond to these allegations?
In his opening remarks, on March 8, the British lawyer said that the allegations of him taking a position opposing proposals from delegates are “untrue” and that he rejects “such a baseless allegation”.
Subsequently, he also made a statement to the New York Times and clarified his position by saying that he places “high importance on the preservation and protection of the marine environment”. He also spoke about how he is working to make sure that the “decision-making processes around economic activity in the deep seabed is based on best available scientific knowledge”.
What would happen if the ISA cannot reach an agreement?
The two-year period expires in a few months after which Nauru will be able to apply for an exploitation contract for Nauru Ocean Resources, Nori, a subsidiary of Canadian mining startup The Metals Company which the country also sponsors. The small Pacific island country is one of three states sponsoring the Canadian mining startup along with the Kingdom of Tonga and the Republic of Kiribati.
Nauru has also previously sent a memo to the ISA saying that if the seabed authority has not finalised regulations within the time frame and in the meantime if an application for deep-sea mining has been submitted they should “consider and provisionally approve” it. However, other countries have said that they are not obligated to do so until the regulations are finalised.
Meanwhile, Duncan Currie, an international legal adviser to the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition and official observer at the meeting on March 8, told the Guardian, “This is not just a row between diplomats. It is very significant. The executive organ is the council. It is not for the administrative body to be telling the council what decisions they should be making.”
ISA spokesperson, who was not named, also told the UK-based news organisation, that the role of the secretariat is to “facilitate negotiations and ensure that discussions are informed by the best available science” and in line with the UN convention.
It does not “pass judgement” on the position of its member states. “The regulations will only be approved should ISA’s members reach a consensus on its content. In the meantime, only exploration activities will be permitted,” said the ISA spokesperson, as per the Guardian.
As of now, about 30 research centres and companies which are only concerned with the exploration of delimited zones have been granted contracts as the seabeds are considered a “common heritage” that belong to no one, reported AFP. However, that could change as the July 2023 deadline approaches.
Kirsten Thompson, a lecturer in ecology at the University of Exeter told BBC Future, that mining could “irreversibly damage” species that live on the ocean floor also known as benthic ecosystems. He added, considering the “myriad threats” the marine ecosystem is facing, regulating human activities is “vital to ensure biodiversity conservation and to preserve ecosystem functioning”.
(With inputs from agencies)
You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.
