Highlights for Wednesday, 27 February 2019
Delegates from Belgium and Germany consult informally
On Wednesday, the Council of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) continued its deliberations, addressing cooperation with other relevant international organizations and further focusing on components of the draft regulations for exploitation of mineral resources in the Area, including:
independent review of environmental plans and performance assessments; and
an inspection mechanism.
Highlights of the day include:
an in-depth discussion on independent reviews of environmental plans, offering concrete organizational ideas and ways to avoid potential conflicts of interest;
general agreement for a transparent, geographically-balanced, and cost-effective way to conduct the reviews;
exchange of ideas on the social necessity of deep sea mining to allow the transition towards a carbon-free, circular economy; and
announcement of the second edition of the Secretary-General’s Award for Excellence in Deep Sea Research, accompanied by a financial reward of USD 25,000, offered by the Principality of Monaco.
Two side events took place during the day. At lunchtime, Pew Charitable Trusts held an event on new data and insights from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone; during the afternoon, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition organized a discussion on the role and purpose of environmental impact assessments.For extensive details on the day’s negotiations and to hear what delegates said in the corridors, see our daily Earth Negotiations Bulletin.
IISD Reporting Services, through its Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) Meeting Coverage, provided daily web coverage and daily reports from the 1st Part of ISA-25. In addition, IISD Reporting Services, has published a summary and analysis report of the meeting, which is available in HTML and PDF.
Photos by IISD/ENB | Diego Noguera
For photo reprint permissions, please follow instructions at our Attribution Regulations for Meeting Photo Usage Page
Alfonso Ascencio-Herrera, ISA Legal Counsel and Deputy to the Secretary-General
Michael Lodge, ISA Secretary-General
Yoshihisa Shirayama, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)
Sonali Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka
Julian Wilckens, Germany
Mehdi Remaoun, Algeria
Hu Bing, China
Young Lee, Republic of Korea
Kathy Ann Brown, Jamaica
Francisco Javier Bernales, Chile
Guy Sevrin, Belgium
Maruthadu Sudhakar, India
Gavin Watson, UK
Andreas Motzfeldt Kravik, Norway
Clement Yow Mulalap, Federated States of Micronesia
Wini Broadbelt and Tom Diederen, the Netherlands
Patricio Ureña Palacio, Argentina
Gerard Barron, DeepGreen
Alain Bernard, Dredging, Environmental and Marine Engineering
Ahmad Al Karim, Bangladesh
Jerome Dyment, InterRidge
Yongsheng Cai, Katie Elles, and Marie Bourrel-McKinnon, ISA Secretariat
Delegates check the daily ENB
Benhur Viana and Carlos Alberto Michaelsen den Hartog, Brazil
Hans-Peter Damian and Ingo Narberhaus, Germany, and Asterios Tsioumanis, ENB
A delegate takes a panoramic photo of the Council
Wini Broadbelt, the Netherlands, and Lumka Yengeni, South Africa, Council President for the 25th Session
Hannah Lily, the Commonwealth; Kristina Gjerde, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); Cindy Lee Van Dover, Pew Charitable Trusts; and Alison Swaddling, the Commonwealth
Michael Lodge, ISA Secretary-General, and Urs Daniel Engels, Germany
Lowri Mai Griffiths, UK, and Nicole Lyas, Australia
The Belgian delegation
The German delegation
L-R: Aline Jaeckel, Phillip J. Turner, Diva Amon, and Jessica Perelman, Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI)
Around the Venue
