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Japan Today
3 days ago
- Business
- Japan Today
Trump's drive for ocean bed mining threatens law of the sea
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April to expand permitting for deep-sea mining in both domestic and international waters using an obscure 1980 US law By Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS U.S. President Donald Trump's move to sidestep global regulations and begin pushing for seabed mining in international waters could pose a wider threat of competing countries claiming sovereignty over the ocean, experts say. Trump last month signed an executive order to accelerate the permit-granting process for deep-sea mining in domestic and international waters, citing an obscure 1980 U.S. law. And the Canadian deep-sea mining frontrunner The Metals Company has already filed an application in the United States to conduct commercial mining on the high seas -- bypassing the International Seabed Authority (ISA). This is the body entrusted by a United Nations convention with managing the ocean floor outside of national jurisdictions. Ocean law is largely guided by that accord -- the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), first signed in 1982 to prevent "a competitive scramble for sovereign rights over the land underlying the world's seas and oceans," according to Maltese diplomat Arvid Pardo, the convention's forebearer. The United States never ratified the convention, which took effect in 1994, though it has applied many of its clauses. Coalter Lathrop, an attorney at the U.S. law firm Sovereign Geographic, told AFP that the United States is "a huge beneficiary of the parallel set of customary international law rules" despite not being a party to UNCLOS. For instance, the United States has one of the largest Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) which gives states sovereignty over maritime areas up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from their coastline -- protecting them from foreign fishing boats, among other extractive industries. If the U.S. enjoys the benefits of ocean law, Lathrop argues, "but then you disregard the other part of the package deal -- that the seabed and its minerals in areas beyond national jurisdiction are the common heritage of humankind -- that is going to be destabilizing, to say the least, for the general legal order of the oceans." "U.S. unilateral permitting could lead to the disintegration of a system that has been carefully curated and created by the United States, largely for its own benefit," he added. The U.S. and Canadian moves sparked an international outcry from ISA member states, including China, whose foreign ministry spokesman warned it violates international law. ISA secretary general Leticia Carvalho expressed similar concern, saying that "any unilateral action... sets a dangerous precedent that could destabilize the entire system of global ocean governance." The Metals Company does maintain contracts with ISA members like Japan -- where it has a partnership with smelting company Pamco. And experts note such ISA member states could invoke their obligation to UNCLOS to enforce maritime law on The Metals Company via these proxies, even if it ultimately receives a permit from the Trump administration. Guy Standing, an economist at the University of London, told AFP: "It's the most dangerous thing he's done so far," referring to Trump. If marine laws "were to come sort of unraveled," Standing said, "you could have a carve up in different parts of the world, with Russia, China and America carving up the Arctic." However, not all scholars in the field are in agreement. James Kraska, a professor of international maritime law at U.S. Naval War College, said "it's naive to think the United States has that kind of influence." "I just disagree with the people that are saying that it's somehow a legal obligation to comply with a treaty that you never joined," he told AFP. "I just can't see any way that it's unlawful. I understand that there's sort of political opposition to it, but I would just distinguish between politics and the law." © 2025 AFP
Japan Today
16-05-2025
- General
- Japan Today
As world heats up, U.N. cools itself the cool way: with water
As more people want to stay cool in a planet that is steadily heating up, energy experts point to water-based system as a good alternative. By Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS Deep in the bowels of the U.N. headquarters, a pump sucks in huge amounts of water from the East River to help cool the complex with an old but energy-efficient mechanism. As more and more people want to stay cool in a planet that is steadily heating up, energy experts point to this kind of water-based system as a good alternative to air conditioning. But in many cases they are hard to set up. The system has been part of the New York complex since it opened in the 1950s, chief building engineer Michael Martini told AFP during a tour of the cooling equipment. The system, overhauled with the rest of the complex from 2008 to 2014, cools the U.N. center using less energy than a conventional air conditioning system. U.N. policy is to bring the air temperature down to about 24 degrees Celsius, or 75 degrees Fahrenheit. In summer in New York, the river running beside the U.N. headquarters -- it is actually a salt water estuary -- stays much cooler than the surrounding air, which can reach 100 degrees. So cooling the building eats up less energy. As many as 26,000 liters per minute of water flow through fiber glass pipes to the complex's cooling plant, which uses it and a refrigerant gas to produce cold. The system has two independent loops to prevent contamination of the water that flows back into the river at a higher temperature, said the head of the cooling system, David Lindsay. Looking at the gleaming glass tower of the U.N. headquarters and the dome of the General Assembly, you would never know that the East River serves this purpose for the U.N. and is more than just part of the scenery. The U.N.'s New York headquarters is not its only building that depends on water. In Geneva, its Palais de Nations features a cooling system that uses water from Lake Geneva. And the U.N. City complex in Copenhagen, which houses 10 UN agencies, depends on cold seawater that almost eliminates the need for electricity to cool the place. This a huge benefit compared to the estimated two billion air conditioning units installed around a world. With the number of air conditioners due to increase so as to help people who are more and more exposed to dangerous temperatures, energy consumption for the purpose of cooling has already tripled since 1990, says the International Energy Agency, which wants more efficient systems. Examples of these are centralized air conditioning networks using electricity, geothermal systems or ones that use water, like the U.N. complex in New York. This latter system "has not been deployed as much as it should be for the issues we face today," said Lily Riahi, coordinator of Cool Coalition, a grouping of states, cities and companies under the aegis of the United Nations. Some big organizations have been able to run such systems on their own, like the United Nations or Cornell University in New York State, which relies on water from Lake Cayuga. But for the most part these systems require a lot of coordination among multiple stakeholders, said Riahi. "We know it's technically possible, and we know actually there are many cases that prove the economics as well," said Rob Thornton, president of the International District Energy Association, which helps develop district cooling and heating networks. "But it requires someone, some agent, whether it's a champion, a city, or a utility or someone, to actually undertake the aggregation of the market," he said. "The challenge is just gathering and aggregating the customers to the point where there's enough, where the risk can be managed," Thornton said. He cited Paris as an example, which uses the Seine River to run Europe's largest water-based cooling grid. These networks allow for the reduced use toxic substances as coolants, and lower the risk of leaks. And they avoid emissions of hot air -- like air conditioning units spew -- into cities already enduring heat waves. But hot water from cooling units, when dumped back into rivers and other bodies of water, is dangerous for aquatic ecosystems, environmentalists say. "This challenge is quite small, compared to the discharge from nuclear plants," said Riahi, adding the problem can be addressed by setting a temperate limit on this water. © 2025 AFP
Japan Today
30-04-2025
- General
- Japan Today
On the horizon? Wave of momentum for high seas treaty
The 2025 United Nations (UN) Oceans Conference, seen here with Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivering a speech at the 2022 edition, serves as a nexus for ratifying a 2023 High Seas pact by member nations By Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS A treaty to protect the high seas will not come to life by the time the U.N. Oceans Conference opens in June, but persistence by member states has nudged the landmark pact towards enactment. Adopted in June 2023 after years of exhausting negotiations, the pact aims to protect marine habitats vital to humanity but threatened by pollution in vast waters beyond any national jurisdiction. It now has 113 signatories, but just 21 have ratified it. After the past two weeks of United Nations meetings in New York -- with the conspicuous absence of the United States -- negotiators came "one step closer to shaping the institutional backbone" of the agreement, said Nichola Clark of the Pew Charitable Trusts after the first preparatory commission for the treaty's entry into force. However, as the treaty can only take effect 120 days after the 60th ratification, there is no chance of its enactment happening before the U.N. Oceans Conference gathers in Nice, France on June 9-13. Experts now hope the 60-ratification threshold can be reached by June so the treaty can still take effect this year. The Nice summit will feature dozens of heads of state and will be preceded by a conference bringing together 2,000 scientists from around 100 countries. A special ceremony in Nice on June 9 will serve as "a unique opportunity to reaffirm our collective political commitment" to the treaty's implementation, French delegation head Sandrine Barbier said. In a sign of growing enthusiasm, the opening preparatory commission moved more quickly than expected through discussions on multiple issues, including formulation of a system to exchange information between the parties. There was "a lot of love in the room" for the treaty during the preparatory meetings, High Seas Alliance director Rebecca Hubbard told AFP, describing the text as "one of our best opportunities to deliver action to protect the ocean." And beyond the technical elements, said Pew's Clark, "there's been some exciting progress and movement" on the issue of marine protected areas that are emblematic of the treaty. Overall enthusiasm was dampened however by the absence of the United States -- which had signed on to the treaty under Joe Biden's administration but did not ratify it -- and a shock announcement by Donald Trump on a major, controversial issue for the oceans: deep-sea mining. On April 24, the US president opened the door to commercial extraction of rare earth minerals from the ocean floor, including in international waters, bypassing the jurisdiction of the International Seabed Authority, of which Washington is not a member. Trump's executive order "is an insult to multilateralism and a slap in the face to all the countries and millions of people around the world who oppose this dangerous industry," said Arlo Hemphill, project lead on Greenpeace USA's campaign to stop deep-sea mining. "This is a clear sign that the U.S. will no longer be a global leader on protecting the oceans, which support all life on this planet." Governments worldwide have put forward a goal to protect 30 percent of the world's land and ocean by 2030. © 2025 AFP
