Since the signing of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the creation of the International Seabed Authority, the United States of America has been a shadow partner in the growing deep-sea mining industry. Though the United States provides scientific and technical expertise, and is a de facto participant through American-owned subsidiaries […]
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After a multiple-month delay in response to the global pandemic, the International Seabed Authority is set to convene the second part of the 26th Session in Kingston Jamaica this December. While the format of the December meeting has not yet been announced, a previous postponement from July to October had the meeting substantially abridged compared […]
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This has been a strange summer for the online discussion of deep-sea mining. On one hand, there has been an exceptionally high volume of posts about the emerging industry, clustered around the release of several major critical articles in the popular media. On the other hand, due to the relative dearth of major new developments […]
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Pradeep A. Singh Pradeep Singh is a research associate at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (Potsdam, Germany) and doctoral candidate at the University of Bremen (Bremen, Germany). The views expressed here are his own and are partly based on his ongoing doctoral research. The composition of members at the Legal and Technical Commission (LTC) […]
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Maria Bolevich for DSM Observer The coronavirus pandemic is changing the world in dramatic and subtle ways, exacting a toll measured both in lost lives and economic uncertainty. Deep-sea mining has been in development for over 50 years and now, at the moment in which negotiations were poised to transition the industry from exploration to […]
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Matthew R. Francis for DSM Observer Nothing is less “deep sea” than an asteroid, yet parallels exist between these two domains, particularly when it comes to resource extraction. Asteroids are debris left over from the formation of the Solar System roughly 4.5 billion years ago. Due to our shared origin, Earth and asteroids contain the […]
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African nations make up over a quarter of all member states that have ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The African Regional Working group consistently takes a leadership role in International Seabed Authority negotiations and they are among the leading voices pushing for a fair and equitable financial model. Yet for […]
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Sergio Cambronero There were high expectations at the first part of the 26thCouncil Session of the International Seabed Authority (ISA). 2020 was thought by many to herald the approval of the Exploitation Regulations. However, the drafting process is ongoing, entrenched in debate on key elements, which in turn has led to uncertainty around the approaching […]
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The 26th Session of the International Seabed Authority convened this February to continue the long and complex negotiations over the draft Mining Code and work towards consensus among the various stakeholders. 2020 was set as the target year to get the Mining Code finalized, but many delegates left Jamaica feeling frustrated with the pace of […]
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When the first part of 26th Session of the International Seabed Authority convened last month, there was a new stakeholder impacting the pace of deliberations. COVID-19 had just begun to spread beyond China and nations across the world were limiting travel in the hopes of containing the outbreak. With Jamaica imposing a 14-day quarantine on […]
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