Appointed only last year to lead the body responsible for regulating mineral resources and environmental protection in international waters, Leticia Reis de Carvalho has faced strong headwinds. Negotiations on an international mining code – a rulebook to ensure the safe exploitation of seabed minerals – have been dragging on since 2019.
Divisions among the roughly 170 members of the autonomous organisation set up under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) are blocking the adoption of the mining code’s third pillar, meant to regulate the extraction of critical minerals in international waters.
Now, with the United States deciding not to wait for an international agreement and to move ahead with mining, and fears that others may follow as access to critical raw materials becomes a central geopolitical issue, Reis de Carvalho tells Euractiv in an exclusive interview how she hopes to seal a deal this year.
After adopting prospecting guidelines and exploration regulations – for polymetallic nodules in 2000, polymetallic sulphides in 2010, and cobalt-rich crusts in 2012 – the International Seabed Authority (ISA) must now adopt the mining code, an international rulebook governing the extraction of such minerals.
“The deep seabed beyond national jurisdiction represents about 54% of the world’s oceans,” Reis de Carvalho said. “This makes the regulation of these activities anything but trivial.” Known as “the Zone”, this vast area is defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) as the common heritage of mankind.
Multilateralism
The recent decision by the US – which has never been a member of the ISA, despite generally adhering to international maritime law – to accelerate deep-sea mining, has given Reis de Carvalho a renewed sense of urgency about breaking the deadlock. She was in Brussels last week, following a visit to Geneva, to press the message with senior EU officials.
On 20 January, the Trump administration fast-tracked a single permit combining exploration and exploitation, paving the way for mining in international waters.
“What is at stake is the existence of a common regulatory system vis-à-vis independent regulatory systems,” Reis de Carvalho said. The mining code, she argued, would ensure transparency, while unilateral systems may remain opaque.
“They have no obligation to share information with anyone,” she warned. “They are not bound by any high-level standards.”
One of the ISA’s roles is to provide a central repository of scientific data and promote technology transfer among members. It collates geological, biological and environmental information and ensures that developing countries also benefit from its dissemination.
Since the US is not an ISA member, American companies operating in international waters are not required to share their data. “The debate phase is over,” Leticia de Carvalho said. “Now we’re in the phase of resolution and decision.”
Against a moratorium
Reis de Carvalho is convinced that a total moratorium on seabed mineral exploitation – an idea popular in Europe – would be counterproductive.
“It would halt the legislative process,” she said. “I told the Geneva environment network that just last Wednesday.”
Last year, the European Commission, together with the president of the European Council, and the European Parliament, called for a complete prohibition pending a through assessment of potential environmental harm.
But the ISA chief argues that a moratorium would create a regulatory vacuum that “will be filled by independent regulations.”
“We are more likely to end up with opaque regulatory systems than to establish clear transparency guidelines for the world,” she said.
In any case, she added, such an agreement “doesn’t belong to the space of the rules where the ISA is embedded.” Put more simply, despite political rhetoric, no request for a moratorium has been filed within the legal framework of the ISA.
For the Brazilian oceanographer and diplomat, the priority is clear: adopt the Exploitation Regulations first – the core of the mining code – with finer details to follow.
“It’s a legislative piece,” Reis de Carvalho said, “and it still needs to be complemented with standards and guidelines.”
Those standards and guidelines, she explained, are practical tools showing companies how to comply with the rules.
“Member states should approve separating the rules and regulations from the standards and guidelines,” she said. “The standards will get the time they need to be perfected by technical experts.”
In many ways, Reis de Carvalho is advocating a form of lawmaking familiar in Brussels: keep core legislation simple and free of technical parameters, thresholds and limits, then fill in the details later.
She added that the best way to ensure environmental protection is “equipping the ISA with rules and standards, so that collective safeguards are put in place.”
ISA members urged to back the draft
Reis de Carvalho also argues that a clear set of rules and guidelines would benefit companies looking to invest in undersea mineral resources. Exploration has been declining, with firms reluctant to commit capital amid regulatory uncertainty.
The consolidated draft of the mining code shared with ISA members in December should lead to an agreement this year, the secretary-general believes, because it honours the precautionary principle through concrete safeguards.
“I am very grateful for the action of the environmental community who raised their voices to demand very robust standards,” the ISA chief said, acknowledging the role of global activists.
She credited green groups with influencing a decision at the ISA Council meeting in July 2025 to adopt a new principle: companies contracted by the ISA will no longer monitor only their assigned areas.
“They also have to look at the surrounding area,” Reis de Carvalho said. “For a more holistic management of the ecosystem.”
She added that members have also agreed on definitions for key environmental thresholds. “Noise, light, plume toxicity on the seabed – these are parameters we now have a framework for,” she said.
With the ISA’s annual session opening in Jamaica later this month, Reis de Carvalho is urging EU countries to adopt a unified stance and push for an agreement as soon as possible.
“The consolidated draft should be the basis for negotiations,” she said.
Whether that message is heard, she added, may determine whether the authority finally delivers a global framework – or watches it unravel.
By – https://www.euractiv.com/news/interview-the-race-to-agree-global-rules-on-deep-sea-mining/