MONDAY 15 JULY — The future of deep sea mining will be a focus for world leaders from tonight as the International Seabed Authority (ISA) kicks off its 29th session in Kingston, Jamaica (11pm Monday AEST). Global leaders, including Pacific leaders and members of the Australian delegation, are expected to discuss the general policy of deep sea mining. 

Greenpeace Australia Pacific is calling on the Albanese government to support a moratorium on deep sea mining and join a growing number of countries (27), including a majority of Pacific governments, that are opposed to it. 

So far, the ISA has granted 31 deep sea mining exploration contracts covering over 1.5 million km² of the world’s seabed – an area more than five times the size of New Zealand. Seventeen of these contracts cover exploration in the Pacific Ocean’s Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), an area between Hawaii and México and close to some Pacific Nations. 

These contracts do not allow companies to mine but to explore and test-mine with a view to submitting an application for exploitation, which is what The Metals Company – headed by Australian businessman and CEO Gerard Barron – has already announced it plans to do in the Pacific Ocean this year. 

Shiva Gounden, Head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said:

“For Pasifika people, our deep connection to our Pacific Ocean goes beyond the physical proximity of where we are based. There is spiritual interconnectedness, interdependence, and relationship with our Moana, our Solwara, and our Wasawasa. Protecting it from extraction and material interests is the basis of our beings as Pasifika people.

“The ISA has been given the important responsibility to regulate and protect our deep oceans from exploitation, so you cannot have a UN body that has vested interests that hinder it from making impartial decisions based on ethics and the cultural human rights of our Pacific people.”

Tita Longopoa, Program Director at Civil Society Forum of Tonga, said: 

“The ISA is the designated body to regulate any activity in the ocean beyond national jurisdiction, so given Tonga is a Sponsoring State of areas in the High Seas and a member, we are obligated to be guided by the ISA. Thus, it needs to be fit for purpose, balancing its responsibility to govern the resources as well as ensure the protection of our Ocean. If they are not fit for purpose, we will suffer.”

At the ISA meeting, Member States are expected to: 

  • Continue negotiations on a consolidated text (draft regulations for a Mining Code)
  • Hold an election for the Secretary-General of the ISA
  • Potentially, for the first time in the ISA’s history, discuss the need for a General Policy on the protection and preservation of the marine environment – a similar discussion was blocked for the entire Assembly meeting last year.

Greenpeace will be on the ground in Kingston and can provide a range of Pasifika voices and Pacific climate leaders for interview on issues including:

  • The threats deep sea mining poses to Pasifika people and culture in the region
  • Australia’s role in uniting Pacific nations for a moratorium
  • The need for a new secretary general who will champion independent decision-making free from vested interests 
  • The importance of the independence of the governing body, which will decide on the future protection of the ocean and consequently the Pacific peoples and cultures

— ENDS —

To request an interview, please contact:

Kimberley Bernard on +61 407 581 404 or [email protected]

Notes:

Recet coverage of former prime minister Scott Morrison’s involvement in deep sea mining can be read here with Greenpeace’s statement here

Images can be found here