The Council of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) concluded its work for 2023, advancing the negotiations on the development of the draft exploitation regulations along the tracks of: the protection and preservation of the marine environment; inspection, compliance, and enforcement (ICE); financial issues; and institutional matters.

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) summary report of the meeting acknowledges that “[r]egulating the commercial exploitation of deep-sea minerals is no easy task.” A novel industry, deep-sea mining raises serious environmental and socioeconomic concerns. ISA’s work has therefore “come[] into the spotlight as managing the seabed falls under its mandate.”

Essentially, there are two perspectives in the debate over the commercial exploitation of mineral resources from the deep-seabed. Those in favor, ENB writes, point towards the need for a supply of nickel, manganese, cobalt, and copper from deep-sea resources to drive worldwide energy transition. Those opposed, including 23 states that to date have called for a moratorium or precautionary pause, “focus on the need to protect the ocean, which is already facing numerous challenges including overfishing, acidification, pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change, and to study the unknown deep-sea ecosystems, prior to permanently destroying them.”

In negotiating the draft exploitation regulations, the third part of the 28th session of the ISA followed the roadmap adopted at the July 2023 meeting of the Council, with the talks structured around four working groups and additional informal discussions:

• Informal Working Group on the protection and preservation of the marine environment, which focused on general obligations, pollution control, restriction of mining discharges, environmental management and monitoring plans (EMMPs), the environmental compensation fund, closure and post-closure plans, environmental monitoring, and management systems;
• Informal Working Group on inspection, compliance, and enforcement (ICE), which addressed the inspection mechanism and its periodic review, the compliance committee, enforcement, and penalties;
• Open-ended Working Group on the financial terms of a contract, which covered the financial model for nodules, addressing royalties, applicable equalization measures, incentives, audits, monetary penalties, and the future review of the payment system; and
• Informal Working Group on institutional matters, which discussed provisions on ensuring confidentiality, dispute settlement, and review of the regulations.

In addition, ENB notes, work under the President’s text, comprising “all regulations not taken up by any of the working groups, addressed annexes on the application for approval of a plan of work, the mining workplan, the financing plan, and plans on emergency, safety, and security.”

On harmonizing work to regulate the ocean, the ENB analysis of the meeting highlights that efforts to implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) are being “timidly drawn” into ISA, noting a member’s proposal to “include[e] among the preconditions to conduct deep-sea mining, alongside the robust framework and adequate scientific evidence, an obligation to be well on track in implementing the ‘30 by 30 target,’ which calls for the designation of 30% of the Earth’s land and ocean area as protected areas by 2030, including areas beyond national jurisdiction.” “These developments, according to many participants, signal efforts towards a comprehensive understanding and governance of the ocean,” ENB notes.

The ISA Council convened for the third part of its 28th session from 30 October to 8 November 2023, in Kingston, Jamaica. The ISA Council “intends” to continue the elaboration of the exploitation regulations, with a view to their adoption at the ISA’s 30th session in 2025. [ENB Coverage of the Third Part of ISA’s 28th Annual Session]