Page 42 - Islands Business September 2023

Opinion

SEABED MINING RULES LAPSE IS

WINDOW FOR PACIFIC REGULATIONS

By Anthony Bergin and Maurice Brownjohn predictions of dust clouds in the surface waters.
The latter is unlikely: every gram of ground minerals slurry
In late July, after weeks of fierce debate at the raised from the seafloor has commercial value, so logically
International Seabed Authority (ISA) meeting in Jamaica, deep every grain will be filtered out on board the vessel. Perhaps
sea mining proponents failed to get an agreement for the more concerning is that the cold deep nutrient waters from
immediate licensing of deep sea mining operations. the slurry must be returned to the sea floor, so as not to
The ISA has issued more than 30 exploration mining licences adversely impact surface and water column ecosystems.
to date, although not for commercial scale operations. Most It’s these sorts of rules that should be in the ISA policy. But
of the exploration currently is focused in an area between any commercial industry without rules and monitoring will
Hawaii and Mexico that spans some 4.5 million square always be driven to shortcuts to increase profits. Typically, the
kilometres, known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. environment suffers, and communities of the region miss out.
The ISA’s failure to get agreement on rules for deep sea There needs to be common minimum terms and conditions
mining potentially buys the Pacific region time to take (MTC), and observer monitoring for the nations as a condition
a precautionary approach in establishing guidelines and to work in our region.
protocols which can be updated as we learn more. The ISA delay should be seen as an opportunity to fast-
The recent ISA meeting looked at laying out regulations for track the development and adoption of a regional standard
the budding industry. A deadline of 9 July 2023 had been set MTC for deep sea mining and demand that compatibility be
to finalise the regulations. This was triggered in July 2021 applied in the adjacent high seas. This would be expected
by Nauru announcing its intention to begin seabed mining, to be opposed by seabed mining proponent nations. But the
using a loophole called the “two-year rule”, which obliged region can leverage this by requiring that any in-zone access
the ISA to provisionally approve applications by July 2023, to be granted in the future is conditional upon high seas
regardless of whether regulations were in place. Nauru now compatibility.
understandably wants to press ahead anyway because the ISA The ISA’s negotiations ended last month with more than
has had its two years and in Nauru’s opinion, they can’t delay 20 governments opposing fast-tracked licences. A growing
further. number of countries are calling for a temporary suspension
The ISA intends to continue the elaboration of mining rules of deep sea mining, saying they want more scientific studies
with a view to their adoption in 2025. Although primarily for to be done first. Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Chile, Finland,
the high seas, it must be remembered that a very large part Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, and Vanuatu were among the
of the central and western Pacific Ocean is the EEZs of the 21 countries that support a ban, moratorium or precautionary
many small vulnerable island nations. Like Nauru, deep sea pause on deep sea mining. Clearly the region can get support
mining offers a new revenue stream for their economies. But from these “friends of the Pacific SIDS”.
only if the emerging industry manages to avoid the re-runs Australian delegates at the ISA meeting emphasised
we’ve seen in other extractive sectors, such as tuna, where that no plans of work for exploitation should be approved
being “over the horizon” implied out of sight, no enforced without robust scientific information that will allow for a
regulation, and little real benefit resulted at the time. comprehensive understanding of deep sea ecosystems and the
Besides Nauru, who with its foreign partners are promoting impacts of deep sea mining, especially in the neighbouring
immediate licensing on the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, the Pacific.
deep sea mining proponents are typically not vulnerable It’s time for Australia to facilitate this rather than sit on
island nations or even coastal states of the Pacific. They’re the fence leaving it to the ISA to worry about international
industrialised nations such as China, Norway, Mexico and the waters and hope that there’s no adverse impact in our region.
UK who support fast-tracking licences for seabed mining with Australia should focus on helping our Pacific friends develop
each having vested interests in removing precious metals and seabed mining policy in their waters. We can respect their
minerals from the region’s ocean bed. decision to mine or to not mine within their waters. But we
These nations and their companies are particularly should offer guidance on industry best practices on seabed
interested in cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese, and rare mining if they chose that path.
earths which would be extracted for electric car batteries, With the islands getting their own environmental rules
smartphones and their green energy economies. in place for deep sea mining, they can then dictate what’s
But what’s in it for the Pacific Islands region? Undersea compatible in international waters.
mining is promoted as having less of an environmental
impact than land mining due to no overburden, but many Anthony Bergin is a senior fellow at Strategic Analysis Australia and an
in our region luckily have no exposure to either. Others expert associate at the National Security College. Maurice Brownjohn is an
independent consultant on fisheries and marine resource management.
argue about noise pollution of the extraction process, which
logically would be localised and more concerning perhaps are The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of this publication.
42 Islands Business, September 2023