A vital election is taking place this week, for secretary general of the International Seabed Authority, the body responsible for regulating activities in about half the world’s sea (Inside the battle for top job that will decide the future of deep-sea mining, 29 July).
Standing for re-election is a British lawyer, Michael Lodge, but the UK government should support his Brazilian challenger, because the incumbent has been excessively supportive of mining corporations wanting to expand deep-sea mining. Despite marine scientists warning of horrifying ecological damage, he said: “I don’t believe people should worry that much.” In the eight years of his leadership, the ISA has acted more as a mining developer than as the steward of the blue commons that it was set up to be.
Under his leadership, the ISA has sold 31 so-called exploratory licences for mining in an area of about 1.5m sq km of seabed, gaining $500,000 for each licence for the ISA, each coming to about 7% of the ISA’s budget in each year they were granted. Under his leadership, the ISA was supposed to draw up a mining code that protects the environment, and a mechanism for sharing the benefits among its 168 member countries. It has failed to do either. The ISA is a vital part of global governance. It needs to be strengthened and properly led.
Guy Standing
Author, The Blue Commons: Rescuing the Economy of the Sea
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