ISA’s Carvalho plans to resolve its murky future
Environmental activists calling for an international moratorium on deep-sea mining.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Brazilian marine scientist Leticia Carvalho will be the first-ever woman, oceanographer and person of Latin American heritage to lead the International Seabed Authority — and she says it “feels fantastic.”
“I am very proud,” Carvalho told CNBC via videoconference. “I think it is quite meaningful that someone new, fresh and with a different perspective is coming to take over.”
The ISA, a little-known U.N. regulator that oversees deep-sea mining, is responsible for both the exploitation and conservation of an area that covers around 54% of the world’s oceans.
Carvalho recently beat incumbent Michael Lodge to the top job in a bitterly contested election billed as a pivotal moment for the fate of a potentially multi-trillion-dollar industry. Her four-year term as ISA chief will start on Jan. 1, 2025.
Critical minerals such as cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese can be found in potato-sized nodules at the bottom of the seafloor.
Pallava Bagla | Corbis News | Getty Images
Carvalho’s election victory comes at a time of intense debate about the future of deep-sea mining and the world’s oceans.
The controversial practice of deep-sea mining involves using heavy machinery to remove minerals and metals — such as cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese — from the seabed, where they build up as potato-sized nodules.
The end-use of these minerals are wide-ranging and include electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines and solar panels.
Scientists have warned that the full environmental impacts of deep-sea mining are hard to predict. Environmental campaign groups, meanwhile, say the practice cannot be done sustainably and will inevitably lead to ecosystem destruction and species extinction.
I would be very much concerned to have a mining exploitation request sat on my table without a mining code.
Leticia Carvalho
Brazilian marine scientist
The ISA Council, a body composed of 36 member states, recently wrapped up a series of meetings in Jamaica as it seeks to draft a mining code to regulate the exploitation and extraction of polymetallic nodules and other deposits on the ocean floor — before mining activity begins.
Negotiators are trying to ensure formal rules are in place by the end of 2025 and Carvalho says it remains feasible that member states can meet this goal.
“My obligation as Secretary General is to set the stage for them to be able to finalize the work by the end of next year. And I will do everything in my power to do it,” Carvalho said.
‘Cacophony and chaos’
The scramble to reach consensus on a mining code was prompted by Nauru in 2021 when the Pacific Island state informed the ISA of its intention to begin deep-sea mining.
That triggered a controversial provision in the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, known as the “two year rule,” which allows mining applications to be submitted whether the mining code has been finalized or not.
It…