UPDATE
Kingston Jamaica, 19:00 CDT: The Assembly meeting has now concluded. The two outstanding issues of importance relating to a General Policy on the Environment and a long overdue legal institutional review ended as follows:
General Policy:
There was no clear decision on the General Policy on the Environment. Many countries agreed that it was required but there was considerable debate on when and how to move forward. A number of countries stated it would be regrettable if the ISA cannot agree to adopt a clear policy on protecting the environment and Chile agreed to carry the discussion forward informally with interested countries.
Institutional Review:
The Assembly failed to adopt an obligatory governance review, already 3 years overdue, a measure that was supported by an overwhelming majority of countries but was blocked by two countries. The decision was yet again deferred for discussion for next year.
Emma Wilson, DSCC Policy Advisor, said, “Failure to agree to advance these basic measures for ocean protection and ocean governance is a source of grave concern. It raises serious questions about the credibility of the ISA as a regulator with a mandate for environmental protection if it cannot even implement these standard tools of environmental governance. We need political leadership at the highest level at ISA.”
“It’s deeply concerning that just two countries were able to block an obligatory governance review of the ISA, despite overwhelming support from the majority of speakers. Deferring this obligation yet again undermines transparency and erodes trust in the institution. We welcome the broad calls for action and urge the ISA to finally deliver this review — with full stakeholder participation — without further delay in 2026,” said Jessica Battle, Lead WWF’s Global No Deep Seabed Mining Initiative
Full release can be found here.
ENDS
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