Latest news with #ISA
The Advertiser
12 hours ago
- Business
- The Advertiser
No agreement on international rules for deep sea mining
Delegates from around the world could not agree on a set of rules for deep sea mining at a council meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston. Environmental organisations such as Greenpeace see the failure to agree on a "mining code" as a success for the protection of oceans. "The ISA has shown backbone - and stood up to the deep-sea mining industry and governments such as the US under (President Donald) Trump," Greenpeace marine biologist Franziska Saalmann said. There is still no globally accepted set of rules for deep sea mining, in which so-called manganese nodules in particular are mined on the bed of the high seas, in international waters. Many countries and environmental organisations are calling for a moratorium in view of the risks to the barely explored ecosystems. The annual meeting of the ISA Assembly also started in Kingston on Monday and will run until July 25. All states parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are automatically members of the ISA Assembly, which comprises 169 states and the European Union. The assembly's focus will be on fundamental issues relating to the protection of the sea. Observers such as environmental organisations and expert bodies are also participating. It is important to make it clear "that the deep sea is not a legal vacuum for industrial fantasies, but a global natural heritage that deserves protection," Saalmann said. In March, an initiative by Canadian company The Metals Company (TMC) came under fire. The company wants to obtain permission to mine in international waters through a partnership with the United States, which is not a UNCLOS signatory. Many states see this as an attempt to circumvent the ISA. TMC is planning to mine raw materials in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the eastern Pacific, where large quantities of manganese nodules containing nickel, cobalt and copper lie on the seabed. The metals are valuable for manufacturing products such as batteries for electric cars. The ISA has launched an investigation into the company. Delegates from around the world could not agree on a set of rules for deep sea mining at a council meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston. Environmental organisations such as Greenpeace see the failure to agree on a "mining code" as a success for the protection of oceans. "The ISA has shown backbone - and stood up to the deep-sea mining industry and governments such as the US under (President Donald) Trump," Greenpeace marine biologist Franziska Saalmann said. There is still no globally accepted set of rules for deep sea mining, in which so-called manganese nodules in particular are mined on the bed of the high seas, in international waters. Many countries and environmental organisations are calling for a moratorium in view of the risks to the barely explored ecosystems. The annual meeting of the ISA Assembly also started in Kingston on Monday and will run until July 25. All states parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are automatically members of the ISA Assembly, which comprises 169 states and the European Union. The assembly's focus will be on fundamental issues relating to the protection of the sea. Observers such as environmental organisations and expert bodies are also participating. It is important to make it clear "that the deep sea is not a legal vacuum for industrial fantasies, but a global natural heritage that deserves protection," Saalmann said. In March, an initiative by Canadian company The Metals Company (TMC) came under fire. The company wants to obtain permission to mine in international waters through a partnership with the United States, which is not a UNCLOS signatory. Many states see this as an attempt to circumvent the ISA. TMC is planning to mine raw materials in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the eastern Pacific, where large quantities of manganese nodules containing nickel, cobalt and copper lie on the seabed. The metals are valuable for manufacturing products such as batteries for electric cars. The ISA has launched an investigation into the company. Delegates from around the world could not agree on a set of rules for deep sea mining at a council meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston. Environmental organisations such as Greenpeace see the failure to agree on a "mining code" as a success for the protection of oceans. "The ISA has shown backbone - and stood up to the deep-sea mining industry and governments such as the US under (President Donald) Trump," Greenpeace marine biologist Franziska Saalmann said. There is still no globally accepted set of rules for deep sea mining, in which so-called manganese nodules in particular are mined on the bed of the high seas, in international waters. Many countries and environmental organisations are calling for a moratorium in view of the risks to the barely explored ecosystems. The annual meeting of the ISA Assembly also started in Kingston on Monday and will run until July 25. All states parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are automatically members of the ISA Assembly, which comprises 169 states and the European Union. The assembly's focus will be on fundamental issues relating to the protection of the sea. Observers such as environmental organisations and expert bodies are also participating. It is important to make it clear "that the deep sea is not a legal vacuum for industrial fantasies, but a global natural heritage that deserves protection," Saalmann said. In March, an initiative by Canadian company The Metals Company (TMC) came under fire. The company wants to obtain permission to mine in international waters through a partnership with the United States, which is not a UNCLOS signatory. Many states see this as an attempt to circumvent the ISA. TMC is planning to mine raw materials in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the eastern Pacific, where large quantities of manganese nodules containing nickel, cobalt and copper lie on the seabed. The metals are valuable for manufacturing products such as batteries for electric cars. The ISA has launched an investigation into the company. Delegates from around the world could not agree on a set of rules for deep sea mining at a council meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston. Environmental organisations such as Greenpeace see the failure to agree on a "mining code" as a success for the protection of oceans. "The ISA has shown backbone - and stood up to the deep-sea mining industry and governments such as the US under (President Donald) Trump," Greenpeace marine biologist Franziska Saalmann said. There is still no globally accepted set of rules for deep sea mining, in which so-called manganese nodules in particular are mined on the bed of the high seas, in international waters. Many countries and environmental organisations are calling for a moratorium in view of the risks to the barely explored ecosystems. The annual meeting of the ISA Assembly also started in Kingston on Monday and will run until July 25. All states parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are automatically members of the ISA Assembly, which comprises 169 states and the European Union. The assembly's focus will be on fundamental issues relating to the protection of the sea. Observers such as environmental organisations and expert bodies are also participating. It is important to make it clear "that the deep sea is not a legal vacuum for industrial fantasies, but a global natural heritage that deserves protection," Saalmann said. In March, an initiative by Canadian company The Metals Company (TMC) came under fire. The company wants to obtain permission to mine in international waters through a partnership with the United States, which is not a UNCLOS signatory. Many states see this as an attempt to circumvent the ISA. TMC is planning to mine raw materials in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the eastern Pacific, where large quantities of manganese nodules containing nickel, cobalt and copper lie on the seabed. The metals are valuable for manufacturing products such as batteries for electric cars. The ISA has launched an investigation into the company.
Perth Now
13 hours ago
- Business
- Perth Now
No agreement on international rules for deep sea mining
Delegates from around the world could not agree on a set of rules for deep sea mining at a council meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston. Environmental organisations such as Greenpeace see the failure to agree on a "mining code" as a success for the protection of oceans. "The ISA has shown backbone - and stood up to the deep-sea mining industry and governments such as the US under (President Donald) Trump," Greenpeace marine biologist Franziska Saalmann said. There is still no globally accepted set of rules for deep sea mining, in which so-called manganese nodules in particular are mined on the bed of the high seas, in international waters. Many countries and environmental organisations are calling for a moratorium in view of the risks to the barely explored ecosystems. The annual meeting of the ISA Assembly also started in Kingston on Monday and will run until July 25. All states parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are automatically members of the ISA Assembly, which comprises 169 states and the European Union. The assembly's focus will be on fundamental issues relating to the protection of the sea. Observers such as environmental organisations and expert bodies are also participating. It is important to make it clear "that the deep sea is not a legal vacuum for industrial fantasies, but a global natural heritage that deserves protection," Saalmann said. In March, an initiative by Canadian company The Metals Company (TMC) came under fire. The company wants to obtain permission to mine in international waters through a partnership with the United States, which is not a UNCLOS signatory. Many states see this as an attempt to circumvent the ISA. TMC is planning to mine raw materials in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the eastern Pacific, where large quantities of manganese nodules containing nickel, cobalt and copper lie on the seabed. The metals are valuable for manufacturing products such as batteries for electric cars. The ISA has launched an investigation into the company.
Straits Times
14 hours ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Seabed-mining firm faces legal questions over controversial Trump policy
The Metals Company CEO Gerard Barron speaking at the opening of the company's public trading, at Times Square in Manhattan, in 2021. Two months ago, President Donald Trump took an extraordinary step toward issuing permits to mine vast tracts of the ocean floor in international waters where valuable minerals are abundant. It was a boon to The Metals Company, an ambitious startup that had already spent more than a half-billion dollars preparing to become the world's first commercial seabed miner. Within days of Mr Trump's executive order, the company submitted its application to the federal government. As a result, some of the company's international partners are now questioning their relationships with The Metals Company. Mr Trump's order conflicts with a long-standing treaty known as the Law of the Sea, potentially exposing them to legal risks. The issue with The Metals Company's seabed-mining application is that nearly every country in the world, but not the United States, has signed the Law of the Sea treaty. Its language is clear: Mining in areas outside a country's territorial waters before nations agree on how to handle the practice is not just a breach of international law, but an affront to 'the common heritage of mankind'. In May, a Japanese firm that The Metals Company has partnered with in the past to process minerals from seabed-mining test runs, said it was 'carefully discussing the matter with TMC,' citing the importance of doing business with companies 'via a route that has earned international credibility'. In June, the Dutch parliament, noting that The Metals Company would be using a ship belonging to Allseas, a half-Dutch company, voted to request that the Dutch government 'take and support any possible (legal) action against the US and The Metals Company' if they mine in international waters. At this month's meetings of the International Seabed Authority, or ISA, which is a United Nations-affiliated body that administers the Law of the Sea, delegates hotly debated whether to strip The Metals Company and its partners of exploration permits it had obtained through the ISA in recent years and would soon need to extend. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore S'poreans aged 21 to 59 can claim $600 SG60 vouchers from July 22 Singapore Miscalculated grants: Overpayments amounted to $7m for most people, a shortage of $2m to others, says MOH Singapore Changi Airport handles 17.5 million passengers in Q2 2025 Singapore 2 charged over alleged involvement in posting of bail for man who subsequently absconded Singapore Teen charged after allegedly selling vaporisers, advertising e-cigarettes on WhatsApp Life Having a workout partner could be the secret to sticking to your fitness goals Singapore 2,500 turtles seized in India and sent back to S'pore, put down humanely after salmonella detected Singapore Ports and planes: The 2 Singapore firms helping to keep the world moving In an interview on July 18, Gerard Barron, CEO of The Metals Company, dismissed the concerns. 'I see those threats as nothing but wing-flapping,' he said. Mr Barron said that because the United States was the world's most powerful economy, his company's international partners would simply have to deal with the impending reality of commercial seabed mining and adapt their stances on international law. He also said that his company's US permit to start mining in international waters would be issued 'sooner than people expect'. The Metals Company could process its minerals in Indonesia rather than Japan, Mr Barron said, noting that Indonesia and the United States signed a hard-fought trade agreement last week. And that Allseas could relocate out of the Netherlands, a move the company's CEO, Pieter Heerema, alluded to in recent comments to the Dutch press. 'We don't have to, but must be able to consider it,' Mr Heerema said. 'The Netherlands was attractive – now it isn't.' At a recent UN conference in France, Nathan Nagy, a legal adviser to the US State Department made a forceful speech defending his country's stance on seabed mining in international waters, reiterating that the United States has 'never considered' the Law of the Sea to 'reflect customary international law'. Mr Barron said his company opted to apply for a US permit because the ISA had failed for many years to issue the regulations necessary to begin issuing its own extraction permits in international waters. The ISA had pledged to settle those regulations by this year, but is widely expected to miss that deadline. Delegates at the ongoing ISA's talks in Kingston, Jamaica, described feverish, closed-door sessions filled with debate over how to address the Trump administration's decision to start allowing seabed mining in international waters. On July 21, the organisation's council, made up of 36 elected member states, stopped short of punitive action but passed a resolution urging the body's legal and technical committee to investigate 'noncompliance' by its signatories. ISA member states are bound by the Law of the Sea to prevent public and private entities in their countries from doing business with anyone mining without an ISA permit, which is precisely what The Metals Company is aiming to do. 'TMC has been testing the limits of what it can get away with, a bit like a child seeing how far it can go with bad behavior,' said Matthew Gianni, co-founder of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, who was present at the talks in Kingston. 'The member countries of the ISA have basically sent a shot across the bow, a warning to TMC that going rogue may well result in the loss of its ISA exploration claims,' he said. 'It also sends a signal to other companies that if they go the same route as TMC has, they may also face the same consequences.' The ISA's draft regulations, which already stretch to nearly 200 pages, remained largely unsettled. The process has been stymied by disagreements over environmental regulations, including how much sediment seabed miners would be allowed to put back in the water, as well as how much in royalties miners would owe to countries sponsoring their permits. The ISA's Brazilian secretary-general, Leticia Carvalho, told delegates in a speech that completing the regulations as soon as possible was 'the best tool we have to prevent the chaos that unilateral action could bring.' 'What will prevent the Wild West are the rules,' she said. The Metals Company's ISA-issued exploration permits were obtained through intermediaries in the small South Pacific island nations of Nauru and Tonga. They pertain to areas within a vast stretch of ocean floor about halfway between Mexico and Hawaii, called the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. The seabed there is blanketed with potato-size nodules containing large proportions of manganese and smaller amounts of nickel, cobalt and copper, all of which have growing uses in military equipment, electronics and large-scale industries such as steelmaking. The United States considers those metals critical to national security and has sought new sources of them because China dominates current supply chains. No commercial-scale seabed mining has ever taken place. The technological hurdles are high, and there have been serious concerns about the environmental consequences in the deep sea, a region of the planet that is little understood to science. Anticipating that mining would eventually be allowed, companies like Barron's have invested heavily in developing technologies to mine the ocean floors. This includes ships with huge claws that would extend down to the seabed, as well as autonomous vehicles attached to gargantuan vacuums that would scour the ocean floor. NYTIMES
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Lifetime ISA vs personal pension: Which is better for higher retirement income?
If you don't qualify for an employer pension, or you're looking for a way to supplement yours, both a Lifetime ISA and a personal pension, such as a SIPP (a self-invested personal pension), can be effective retirement planning tools. They have a lot in common: they're both tax-efficient, they hold a similar range of investments - Lifetime ISAs are a little more restricted - and most compellingly, contributions to either are topped up by 25 per cent, albeit in different ways. At first glance, it may seem that you could pay the same amount into one or the other and they would deliver an equal income in retirement. This isn't the case. Let's look at which could provide a higher income for you, and why. Which allows you to save more? A Lifetime ISA allows you to pay in up to £4,000 each year from the age of 18 until you turn 50. If you paid in the maximum each year, the total would be £128,000. You must open one before age 40. Contributions count towards your overall ISA allowance. Pensions usually allow you to pay in a lot more, and you can pay in for longer. Various limits apply in different circumstances, but the standard annual allowance is £60,000. Which offers a better 'bonus'? When you make a contribution into a Lifetime ISA, the government adds a 25 per cent bonus. So, if you pay in £800, the government bonus will be £200. You can read more on LISAs here. Pension contributions don't benefit from a bonus, but they are eligible for tax relief, which has a similar effect. If you make a contribution of £800 into a personal pension, your pension provider claims and adds £200 from HMRC (the equivalent of basic-rate income tax). If you're a higher-rate or additional-rate taxpayer, you'll be entitled to more tax relief. This won't be claimed by your pension provider but you can claim it back through your self-assessment. (Getty Images) Which can be accessed first? You can freely access the wealth within your Lifetime ISA after the age of 60. Before that age, you can access it in two scenarios: You're buying your first home, at a value of no more than £450,000 You pay a 25 per cent withdrawal charge. Note that the 25 per cent withdrawal charge does not equal the bonus, but actually exceeds it: If you pay in £800, you'll receive a bonus of £200, giving you a total of £1,000 If you now withdraw £1,000, you'll pay a penalty of £250 (25 per cent of the total) You'll have £750 remaining, leaving you £50 worse off. Pensions usually cannot be accessed before the age of 55 (rising to 57 in April 2028) unless you have a serious health condition. It can be a more complex process. How is the income from each taxed? Here is, perhaps, a Lifetime ISA's most appealing characteristic: money withdrawn from them isn't considered income, so it won't be taxed. After the age of 60, you can take as much cash as you like, until it runs out, and you won't pay a penny of it to HMRC. Pension income can be taxed in various ways. A more full explainer is here but to simplify, you can usually take 25 per cent of your pension tax-free, while the other 75 per cent is taxed as income as and when you take it. You might therefore pay tax at 20, 40 or 45 per cent, depending on your other income. Which will provide a higher income? As you've probably gathered, this is a question of the trade-off between the tax relief (or bonuses) you'll receive while saving and the tax you'll pay (or not) when withdrawing. (Getty Images/iStockphoto) A personal pension is usually the better choice for higher-rate and additional-rate taxpayers. The tax relief on your pension contributions, at 40 or 45 per cent, more than offsets the tax you'll pay on your pension income, particularly if you move into a lower tax bracket after you retire. For a basic-rate taxpayer, the reverse is true. Let's look at an example: If you saved up £100,000 over your working life, whether you used a Lifetime ISA or personal pension, you would end up with £125,000 (we'll ignore investment growth to keep things simple). With a Lifetime ISA, you could withdraw this amount over any period, after the age of 60, without paying tax. You'd be able to take the full £125,000. With a personal pension, only 25 per cent (£31,250) would be tax-free. The remaining £93,750 would be taxed as it's withdrawn. If you withdrew it over several years, remaining a basic-rate taxpayer throughout, the total tax would be £18,750. Of your £125,000, you'd only get back £106,250. While this gives a clear advantage to the Lifetime ISA, there are other factors to consider: With an annual limit of £4,000 on contributions, a Lifetime Isa alone may not allow you to save enough as you need for retirement Since you can't access your Lifetime Isa penalty-free until 60, you may have to wait longer to retire You can only pay in until you turn 50, while you might want an option you can pay into after this. Given all the benefits and drawbacks, you may decide that both products have a role in your retirement plan - especially given there may be changes to the Lifetime ISA in to access your portfolio
The Hindu
a day ago
- Business
- The Hindu
New deep sea mining rules lack consensus despite US pressure
After two weeks of negotiations, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) is still far from finalising rules for extracting coveted metals on the high seas despite heightened pressure triggered by US efforts to fast-track the controversial practice. Following a meeting in March and the current session in Jamaica, the 36 members of the ISA's executive council completed on July 17 a line-by-line reading of the proposed "mining code" and its 107 regulations for exploitation of the ocean floor in international waters. The minerals and metals in question, such as cobalt, nickel, and manganese, are used for electric vehicles and other emerging technologies. "This marks a significant milestone," council president Duncan Muhumuza Laki said to applause. But after more than a decade of talks, crucial sections of the proposed rules including mechanisms for protecting the marine environment are far from winning consensus, and several delegations have publicly opposed calls from Laki to work quickly to finalise the code this year, as envisioned in a 2023 roadmap. "The exploitation activities cannot begin as long as we do not have a solid, equitable framework," Chilean representative Salvador Vega Telias, whose country is one of 37 asking for a moratorium on deep sea mining, told the plenary session. He also said mining could not begin until experts could pinpoint "all the scientific knowledge that we need to have to identify the potential impacts and effects on the marine environment." For ISA Secretary-General Leticia Carvalho, "the deep sea needs rules." But, she added, "I firmly believe that the success of deep sea governance will depend on our ability to draw from robust science, inclusive dialogue, and the wisdom to act with precaution." Canadian mining firm The ISA session, which will continue this week with the assembly of all 169 member states, comes as US President Donald Trump threw a monkey wrench into the process in April. The Republican instructed his administration to fast-track the granting of permits for deep sea mining in domestic and international waters, citing an obscure 1980 US law and sidestepping the process undertaken by the ISA. The United States is not party to the independent ISA or to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), under which the ISA was established in 1994. Canada's The Metals Company (TMC) quickly jumped at the opportunity, lodging the first request for a high seas mining license -- a short-circuiting of the ISA process that was slammed by non-governmental organisations and some member states. Those parties appear to want to send a message to TMC on Friday, the last day of the council's session. A draft text still under discussion calls on the ISA's legal and technical commission to investigate "possible issues of non-compliance of contractors that may arise out of the facilitation of or the participation in actions intended to appropriate resources... contrary to the multilateral legal framework." The draft calls on the commission to report any instances of non-compliance or potential violations of the Law of the Sea and "recommend, where appropriate, measures to be taken by the Council." Nori, a subsidiary of TMC, has held since 2011 an exploration contract for an area of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean, which expires in one year. The Canadian firm had hoped to be the first recipient of an ISA-awarded commercial mining license to be used in that area, before pivoting to apply to Washington to work there. 'Common heritage' The talks in Kingston have been tense at times, with several delegations miffed about the rules put in place by the council president, including convening some negotiations behind closed doors. 'What the council is discussing currently is the common heritage of humankind,' Emma Watson of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, an alliance of NGOs, told AFP, criticizing what she called a 'big shift' in procedure. Ocean defenders have battled against what they say is the advent of an industry that will threaten isolated ecosystems, which have still not been thoroughly studied. Company executives and some countries say the world needs these strategic minerals and metals to propel clean energy technologies, such as electric cars.
