With the signing of the High Seas Treaty , a voluminous agreement to regulate extractive activities in ocean spaces that are not under the exclusion zone of any country, a new gold rush begins that already has the main powers of the century in the race. XXI.
Overcoming a long period of speculation, the international community finally laid the legal foundations that give the green light to corporations to remove precious metals and other materials designated as “critical” by the industrial sector from the seabed. According to specialists, it is expected that by By mid-2025 this process will already be underway .
Although the discussion had been presented as a matter of ethics and conservationism, the reasons that stopped this activity revolved around the conflict of geopolitical, economic, and patrimonial interests . The debate was later channeled by the International Seabed Authority , or ISA. for its acronym in English; an autonomous committee created in 1994 under the orbit of the United Nations Organization with the purpose of granting licenses for underwater mining and guaranteeing respect for environmental standards.
However, for thirty years these standards were never fully defined by the organization since there was alleged insufficient data to establish a binding legal framework . This did not prevent the ISA from billing for the licenses extended to the large companies in the sector, the which took a preferential position in the market before their practice was allowed. But thanks to the signing of the Treaty of the High Seas , on June 19, the wait would be coming to an end.
Currently, 31 exploitation licenses have already been issued, mainly in a strip of the Pacific known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) located between Mexico and Hawaii . To receive the ISA permit, interested parties are required to have the sponsorship of a member state of that organization, among which the United States does not appear due to its position contrary to UNCLOS during the Ronald Reagan administration. This meant that several countries displaced from the international board could capitalize on their membership, in turn legitimizing the ISA 's power over spaces legally considered heritage of humanity .
Such is the case of the Republic of Nauru , a microstate in Oceania that served as a spearhead for the Canadian TMC , a company that is at the forefront in the race for marine minerals. In recent years, Nauru developed a narrative that linked the climate change with the need to accelerate the transition towards forms of clean energy that would reduce carbon emissions, since the rise of the seas was drastically harming his country. Taking advantage of a legal loophole, he presented protection measures so that his sponsored TMC could begin to exploit underwater deposits in 2023 under the argument of needing these materials (nickel, cobalt, aluminum, etc.) in the manufacture of batteries that would replace fossil fuels.
Pressured by this position, ISA called a lengthy three-week meeting at its headquarters in Jamaica to vote on the environmental codes that regulate the activity.But due to the failure of the negotiations between the different blocks, the assembly resolved a moratorium that temporarily suspended the discussion until measures are adopted in accordance with the objectives declared in its organic charter.
