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michael lodge
Campaigners Demand Global Ban on Deep-Sea Mining
As talks resume, supporters of a moratorium are also calling for the ouster of the International Seabed Authority's leader, who faces an election on July 29.
Jul 15, 2024
As talks to establish global policies on deep-sea mining resumed in Jamaica on Monday, Greenpeace International renewed its demand for a moratorium on the practice, the path also backed other civil society and Indigenous groups, at least hundreds of science and policy experts, and 27 countries.
"The science is clear—there can't be deep-sea mining without environmental cost and the only solution is a moratorium. The more we know about deep-sea mining, the harder it is to justify it," said Greenpeace campaigner Louisa Casson, who is attending the United Nations-affiliated International Seabed Authority's (ISA) 29th session in Kingston.
"Governments at the ISA must not dance to the tune of the industry and approve rushed regulations for the benefit of a few over the interests of Pacific communities and the opinion of scientists," Casson argued, as companies and countries see chances to cash in on the clean energy transition by extracting metals including cobalt, copper, and nickel.
"The deep ocean sustains crucial processes that make the entire planet habitable, from driving ocean currents that regulate our weather to storing carbon and buffering our planet against the impacts of climate change."
The Associated Pressreported Monday that although the ISA has not allowed any extraction during debates, it "has granted 31 mining exploration contracts," and "much of the ongoing exploration is centered in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone, which covers 1.7 million square miles (4.5 million square kilometers) between Hawaii and Mexico."
The Mexican government last year endorsed a moratorium and Democratic Hawaii Gov. Josh Green last week signed a bill banning seabed mining in state waters, citing "environmental risks and constitutional rights to have a clean and healthy environment."
Ahead of the meeting in Jamaica, Deep Sea Conservation Coalition campaign lead Sofia Tsenikli highlighted that "gouging minerals from the seafloor poses an existential threat that goes far beyond the immediate destruction of deep-sea wildlife and habitats."
"The deep ocean sustains crucial processes that make the entire planet habitable, from driving ocean currents that regulate our weather to storing carbon and buffering our planet against the impacts of climate change," Tsenikli said. "States must now protect the ocean and not allow any more damage."
The ISA was established under the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea and a related 1994 agreement, and is responsible for waters not under the control of specific nations. As Common Dreamsreported earlier this month, some diplomats have accused British lawyer Michael Lodge, its current secretary-general, of trying to speed up the start of mining.
"The rush to complete the mining code was triggered by the Pacific island state of Nauru, which is expected to submit a mining license application on behalf of Canada's the Metals Company (TMC) later this year, regardless of whether or not regulations are complete," Reutersnoted Monday.
After ISA's 36-member Council negotiates the "Mining Code" over the next two weeks, its full Assembly is scheduled to meet on July 29 to vote on the next secretary-general, with Lodge facing a challenge from Brazil's Leticia Carvalho for the top post.
"It is time for change at the ISA," Casson of Greenpeace declared Monday. "A third term for Michael Lodge would not only put the oceans under threat but also risk further damaging public trust in the regulator. Mining companies are impatient to get started and mounting evidence indicates that Lodge is overstepping his supposedly-neutral role to align with commercial interests."
"The ISA must listen to millions of people and the growing number of governments calling for a halt to deep-sea mining," she added. "It is time to put conservation at the heart of the ISA's work."
In preparation for the talks in Kingston, Environment Oregon Research & Policy Center, U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund, and Frontier Group last month released a report showing that not only would deep-sea mining destroy "a vibrant, biodiverse place, teeming with complex ecosystems and thousands, possibly millions of species," but also it isn't necessary.
"Disposable electronic devices are creating a toxic e-waste mess. Now, some mining companies are trying to convince policymakers that we need to wreak havoc on the ocean to source the materials to make more," said Charlie Fisher of the Oregon State PIRG Foundation. "This report shows that we don't need to ruin the deep sea to make the products we need. There is a more sustainable path: Make long-lasting, fixable electronics and recycle them when they no longer work."
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At the International Seabed Authority, It’s Out of Sight, Out of Min(e)d
At the start of the current meeting to decide the fate of deep sea mining, new guidelines appeared on the ISA’s website containing hard restrictions to peaceful protest, documentation, and media scrutiny.
Jul 19, 2023
If you’re trying to kick-start an environmentally destructive industry in 2023, with the climate movement stronger and more mainstream than ever, you better hope no one notices.
That was the strategy of the deep sea mining industry.
“We want to assist in getting this very delicate legislation [allowing deep sea mining] in place, and keeping that out of the very public eye will be of benefit to us all I feel,” the CEO of a deep sea mining company wrote to the head of the industry’s regulator in 2017, according to the LA Times. And then people started noticing.
Recently, the threat of deep sea mining became concrete as a result of the Canadian-registered The Metals Company using a legal loophole to try and jam through the start of this industry. Now governments gathered at the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston have to decide whether to allow it to go ahead. It’s not looking good: New warnings by scientists about what we stand to lose, petitions from Indigenous Peoples, and concerns from the fishing industry have all contributed to over 20 governments now trying to put the brakes on this reckless industry
The problem for deep sea miners is that the genie is out of the bottle. Limiting the ability of journalists to do their job will only make them keener to dig for more inconsistencies and scandals.
Opposition to deep sea mining needed to be controlled and silenced. In the March ISA meeting, two LA Times journalists who previously exposed the ISA Secretary-General Michael Lodge’s proximity to companies were banned from chambers. Some days later Greenpeace-funded billboards calling on governments to take action to stop being the “Irresponsible Seabed Authority” were taken down.
At the start of the current meeting, new guidelines appeared on the ISA’s website: seven pages containing hard restrictions to peaceful protest, documentation, and media scrutiny. Journalists are seemingly now allowed at just one of the three weeks of the meeting while mining companies sit on government delegations. Also, media actions must not engage in “derisory activity or criticism directed at the Authority, its Member States, the Secretariat, the competent authorities of the host government.”
The new rules also now mention protesting outside the conference center while this is not within the competence of the ISA—and forbid it inside the conference center. Ironically, on the first day of the meeting Lodge took the floor to invite everyone to look at the poster exhibition outside the venue. Spoiler: It’s not children’s drawings of deep sea creatures, much less a platform for Pacific activists, it’s “the first Contractors' Poster Exhibition,” a showcase of propaganda for deep sea mining companies. Climate conferences don’t get away with giving advertising space to the fossil fuel industry, so why is this acceptable for deep sea mining?
Scientists warn that if this industry gets a greenlight, it will cause irreversible and unavoidable harm to the oceans. Good job for the companies that it’s pitch-black 4,000 meters deep, and the area they’re targeting are mostly way out on the high seas, hundreds of kilometers from shore. Even with a fleet of ships like the Rainbow Warrior, it’s hard for Greenpeace to keep an eye on what’s happening down there, much less any kind of international watchdog.
In campaigning to protect the oceans from this industry ever starting, we’ve had to rely on tip-offs from concerned whistleblowers, people with privileged information or access to the industry who can bear its encroachment into the oceans no more.
It’s how we broke the story back in 2021 that a Belgian company had got their deep sea mining machine stuck on the seafloor during trials in the middle of the Pacific—for several days. It took inquiries from journalists for the company to confirm this incident publicly, days after the problem started.
Several governments, who make up the ISA, noted that it should not come down to whistleblowers and civil society to expose the problems. So is it any surprise that at this crunch point the ability to scrutinize and protest these negotiations is facing a major clampdown?
For years, campaigners have warned of corporate capture at the ISA, allowing obscure ownership structures of companies to go unquestioned. Michael Lodge made increasingly pro-mining comments, calling the idea of a moratorium “anti-science.”
A safe, respectful, and courteous working environment requires accountability. Governments are making a momentous decision here that requires the active participation of people across the world, bringing diverse perspectives and, where necessary, criticism and warnings. The U.N. human rights commissioner said as much last week.
The problem for deep sea miners is that the genie is out of the bottle. Limiting the ability of journalists to do their job will only make them keener to dig for more inconsistencies and scandals. Revelations that images of test-mining have been kept locked in a corporate archive for 40 years will only beg the question, what else is there to hide?
When the answer is species extinctions, harm to whales, and deepening exploitation of Pacific peoples, you are basically hiding that you are on the way to becoming the fossil fuel industry of the 21st century. And good luck getting any social license or political approval to operate while global temperatures keep breaking records.
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British Head of Deep Sea Authority Accused of Pushing for 'Reckless' Mining
"There can be no exploitation of the deep seabed without agreeing on a set of rules and regulations that ensure high environmental standards," said one Belgian delegate to the International Seabed Authority.
Mar 21, 2023
As delegates from 36 countries convene in Kingston, Jamaica for a summit on the deep sea, a number of diplomats are accusing the administrative head of the United Nations-affiliated International Seabed Authority of trying to push the body to approve a mining application without first finalizing regulations on how the project should move forward.
The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is expecting to receive an application later this year from The Metals Company, a Canadian firm whose deep sea mining plans are sponsored by Nauru, the Kingdom of Tonga, and the Republic of Kiribati.
In 2021, a subsidiary of The Metals Company joined Nauru's then-president, Lionel Aingimea, in triggering a "two-year rule" obliging the ISA to adopt and finalize deep sea mining rules and regulations by July 2023.
The company " forced governments' hands, using an obscure and controversial legal loophole to set an ultimatum for governments," said Greenpeace last week as the delegates gathered in Kingston for the 28th session of ISA.
"The future of half the surface of the planet has to be decided in the best interests of humanity—not the timeframe imposed by a company running out of cash."
Several members of the authority say Michael Lodge, a British lawyer who serves as ISA's secretary general, is actively working to help The Metals Company achieve its goal of extracting 1.3 million tons of rocks containing cobalt, nickel, copper, and manganese—ingredients for electric vehicle batteries—starting in 2024. The company ultimately wants to collect 12 million tons per year and generate roughly $30 billion.
When the delegates met virtually ahead of the 28th Session to discuss how they would proceed if they receive the company's application this year, some suggested revising the ISA's permitting process to delay the start of mining, as several countries advocate for a "precautionary pause" to better evaluate the effect of deep sea mining on marine life.
A study by British and American researchers published last month found that "deep seabed mining operations, if permitted, could present significant risks to ocean ecosystems" and that "disturbance on any scale is likely to be long lasting and irreversible."
"There can be no exploitation of the deep seabed without agreeing on a set of rules and regulations that ensure high environmental standards and a sound scientific knowledge," Hugo Verbist, the Belgian representative on the ISA's governing council, said in Kingston last week.
In his prepared remarks at the earlier meeting, Lodge told the representatives that the "decision-making procedure is carefully designed to balance all interests represented in the council and it would be dangerous to disturb this balance," suggesting they should not make any changes that would delay The Metals Company's project.
"We should let the system work as it is intended to do," Lodge said.
Although Lodge's position as secretary general requires him to remain neutral as delegates on ISA's governing council weigh decisions about deep sea regulations, one Greenpeace senior oceans policy adviser said Lodge is showing clear support for "the two-year ultimatum" invoked by The Metals Company, which "puts the interests of the few over the many and would make it impossible for governments to fulfill their key obligation to protect the oceans."
"Many governments have voiced unease at pressure to rush vital political negotiations over equity and ocean health," said Sebastian Losada of Greenpeace. "The future of half the surface of the planet has to be decided in the best interests of humanity—not the timeframe imposed by a company running out of cash."
Lodge's comments were also criticized by delegates from Costa Rica and Germany, both of which have supported a "precautionary pause" on mining.
"It is not the task of the secretariat to interfere in the decision- making of the other organs and subsidiary organs of the International Seabed Authority," Franziska Brantner, Germany's minister for economic affairs and climate action, wrote in a letter to Lodge last week. "Notwithstanding the above, you used your introductory statement to the intersessional dialogue on 8 March 2023 to present your preferred interpretation of the agreements as the supposed legal framework for delegations' decision-making... The federal government is seriously concerned about this approach."
Lodge dismissed Brantner's allegations, calling them "bold and unsubstantiated" and telling The New York Times that he places "high importance on the preservation and protection of the marine environment" and wants "to ensure that decision-making processes around economic activity in the deep seabed is based on best available scientific knowledge."
The secretary general has dismissed the work of ocean conservation groups in the recent past, telling the Times in 2021 that advocates use images of "turtles with straws up their noses and dolphins" to "get public sympathy."
"They see an opportunity to exert power over governments and potentially shut down a new ocean activity before it begins," Lodge added.
Greenpeace called on the governing council to "draw a line and ensure that the deep sea is protected from mining."
"They can't allow this reckless industry to go ahead," Losada said.
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