At the UN Ocean Conference in Nice just one month ago, the world delivered a powerful and united message: the deep sea must be protected, not exploited. Presidents from France, Palau, Costa Rica, Panama, and Chile, alongside scientists, Indigenous leaders, civil society, and companies, called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining. The UN Secretary-General warned that the deep sea must not become the “wild west.”
Yet in stark contrast, Member States of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), meeting in Jamaica, are still failing to put in place the safeguards immediately required to prevent deep-sea mining from beginning. Instead of aligning with the clear political signals from leaders at UNOC, technical discussions continue to assume deep-sea mining is imminent and acceptable, despite unresolved legal, environmental, and ethical concerns.
If left unchallenged, this trajectory will legitimize an inadequate and incomplete regulatory framework lacking in the necessary scientific foundation, therefore risking serious harm to the marine environment, contrary to States’ obligations under Article 145 of UNCLOS and global commitments to biodiversity, climate, and ocean sustainability, such as the Global Biodiversity Framework and the landmark BBNJ Agreement.
A call to political action and leadership:
Governments at the ISA must not allow the momentum from Nice to fade into business as usual. Agreeing to the Mining Code in 2025, or accepting new artificial deadlines for adoption, would be a political failure. It would ignore scientific uncertainty, unresolved legal gaps, public opposition, and would put the environment and the rights of future generations to live on a healthy planet in serious jeopardy.
The proposed regulatory framework:
● Lacks a scientific basis for setting environmental thresholds: Members of the ISA’s own Legal and Technical Commission (LTC) have acknowledged that scientific
knowledge of open ocean and deep-sea ecosystems is far from sufficient to set thresholds and indicators to prevent damage to the environment from deep-sea mining.
Governments would be authorizing irreversible harm, with multigenerational consequences, without knowing the full scale of destruction.
● Locks in environmental harm for generations: Under the current draft, a single mining contract could last over 50+ years with no ability to revise or strengthen terms
unless contractors agree.
● Relies on unproven, theoretical future restoration and rehabilitation: The draft regulations rely on hypothetical future technologies for restoration, even though current
science confirms that deep-sea ecosystems cannot be restored once destroyed. This would enable contractors to walk away from environmental damage with no
accountability.
● Cannot be effectively enforced: Even if the regulatory framework were effective, there remain major outstanding questions around whether and how it could even be
enforced. Mining would take place in extremely remote and hostile conditions. The ISA has already demonstrated that it is not even capable of properly enforcing exploration regulations and contract agreements; therefore, there can be no confidence that it can properly oversee and regulate full-scale exploitation with far greater risks.
● Fails to meet basic international standards: Independent analyses have shown that the regulations do not internalize environmental costs or achieve standards of
protection. Critical annexes, standards, and guidelines remain incomplete or unagreed, leaving governments to approve a skeletal framework without knowing the full costs, terms, or risks.
A moratorium is the only responsible path forward to ensure the health of the deep sea for future generations. We urge governments to take the following actions:
1) Establish a moratorium or precautionary pause on deep-sea mining exploitation.
2) Reject efforts to rush the development of the mining code until critical legal, scientific, economic, and equity issues are resolved.
3) Establish a General Environmental Policy at the Assembly of the ISA to fulfill UNCLOS obligations and establish a clear environmental governance framework.
4) Defend UNCLOS and multilateralism against the threat of unilateral action. Rogue companies must not be allowed to set a precedent – it is time for the ISA to take action and prove that it takes its obligations as a steward of the deep sea seriously.
The international seabed belongs to all of us, our common heritage of humankind. Decisions made at the ISA must reflect that shared responsibility, not the demands of a single company, nor the pursuit of short-term profit.
Read our full policy recommendations here.