The UN-affiliated organisation that oversees deep-sea mining, a controversial new industry, has been accused of failures of transparency after an independent body responsible for reporting on negotiations was kicked out.
The International Seabed Authority is meeting this week in Kingston, Jamaica, to develop regulations for the industry. The Earth Negotiations Bulletin, a division of the International Institute for sustainable Development, has not had its contract renewed.
The absence of an independent record of proceedings was described as a huge loss for stakeholders.
Some states, including Germany, are concerned that the current knowledge of deep-sea ecosystems and the potential effects of mining on the marine environment are not enough to allow it to go ahead.
Scientists warn that the damage from mining nickel, cobalt and other metals on the deep-seabed would beirreversible. An estimate suggests that most of the deep-sea species are new to science.
The opposition to deep-sea mining is growing and the ISA is facing resistance over its rush to develop a plan. In June last year, the island of Nauru informed the ISA of its intention to start mining in two years, via a subsidiary of a Canadian firm, The Metals Company. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea states that regulations must be in place within two years of an announcement.
The World Wildlife Fund is calling for a moratorium on mining the deep sea, which will affect the potential market for deep-sea minerals used for car and smartphone batteries.
The contract of ENB was not renewed due to budget cuts. The next round of negotiations in July is important for small islands and developing countries who can't always attend.
Germany and environmentalists expressed concern over a lack of transparency by the legal and technical commission, which is charged with developing standards and guidelines for the mining code, which meets behind closed doors.
30 members make up the LTC. Contractors work for deep-sea mining companies.
Germany highlighted the lack of comments or changes in the draft standards and guidelines document.
In order to be transparent and allow for a proper debate, a mark-up document should be provided by the facilitator.
The mining code lacks binding and measurable requirements for marine protection, according to Germany. The code as it stands would not regulate future mining effectively because it does not contain specific environmental minimal requirements for measurable pollution, biodiversity, and noise and light impacts.
The current state of knowledge is insufficient to proceed with exploiting mineral resources.
It supported the EU's formal position that marine minerals cannot be exploited before the effects of deep-sea mining on the marine environment, biodiversity and human activities have been sufficiently researched.
The gulf in scientific knowledge of the deep sea is highlighted by the precautionary approaches adopted by other states.
The UK, which is no longer part of the EU, has been pushing for rapid development of regulations.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the UK government was engaging in negotiations to ensure that high environmental standards were adopted in deep-sea mining regulations.
Duncan Currie, an international lawyer with the Deep Sea Conservancy, said he was very concerned by the various failures of transparency.
There is no transparency of the meetings of the LTC. It sounds like an innocuous body, but it is actually the decision-making body within the ISA.
The whole area of deep-sea mining is a political, scientific and political minefield. There needs to be a moratorium put in place.
The possibility of not continuing with mining was not included in the proposed standards and guidelines.
The ISA's secretariat has been accused of bias towards allowing mining to take place to the detriment of the environment by the observer at the talks.
There is not enough time to get it right and there is not the science.
The secretariat did not respond when contacted.
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