SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A United Nations agency charged with regulating the deep seas is debating whether to open up the Earth’s aquatic depths to countries and companies that as of Monday were allowed to begin apply for provisional mining licenses.
The Jamaica-based International Seabed Authority kicked off a two-week conference on the issue on Monday, a day after it missed a deadline to approve a set of rules and regulations governing deep-sea mining in the international waters.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” said Juan José González, chairman of the authority’s council.
The authority has issued more than 30 exploration licenses, but no provisional licenses – so far.
The debate over whether to allow companies to mine the precious metals from the depths of the sea that are used in electric car batteries and other green technologies comes as more than a dozen countries call for a ban or a moratorium in view of environmental concerns.
Scientists have said deep sea minerals take millions of years to form and mining could unleash noise, light and suffocating dust storms. However, companies have argued that deep-sea mining is cheaper and has less impact than land-based mining.
Most of the current exploration is focused on the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone, which covers 1.7 million square miles (4.5 million square kilometers) between Hawaii and Mexico. It occurs at depths ranging from 13,000 to 19,000 feet (4,000 to 6,000 meters).
On Monday, Canada announced it supports a moratorium because there is no regulatory framework in place or a thorough understanding of the environmental impacts of deep sea mining.
“It is essential that the international community recognizes its collective responsibility to safeguard the health and integrity of our shared global ocean for future generations,” the government said in a statement.
The 36-member council of the International Seabed Authority is expected to debate the issue on Friday. But it’s unclear when or if he would actually vote on whether to allow mining in international deep waters given the sharp divisions over the issue.
“There’s really no desire to vote,” said Duncan Currie, an international and environmental lawyer and legal adviser to the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, a Netherlands-based alliance of environmental groups.
Currie, who was at the conference, said in a phone interview that he envisions three scenarios: the authority agrees on a legal and technical framework by the end of the year; the matter goes to the German International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea if there is no consensus; or, a metallurgical company submits a work plan to one of the authority’s commissions, which must then submit it to the vote of the council.
González, the chairman of the board, urged members to “stay open and try to reach consensus” at the start of the conference.
“Hopefully we will be able to make a decision at the end of the two weeks,” he said.