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Emirates 24/7
18-07-2025
- Science
- Emirates 24/7
UAE attends 47th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Milan after acceding to Antarctic Treaty in December 2024
The United Arab Emirates participated for the first time in the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM), attending the 47th session held in Milan, Italy, following its accession to the Antarctic Treaty in December 2024. The UAE delegation was led by Abdulla Balalaa, Deputy Chair of the Emirates Polar Programme (EPP) Steering Committee and Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Energy and Sustainability, and attended by representatives from the EPP. The ATCM serves as the principal forum for international collaboration on Antarctica-related issues. Convened annually, the meeting brings together consultative and non-consultative parties to exchange information, explore areas of common interest, and recommend measures to advance the Treaty's objectives. This year's session saw the participation of over 400 delegations, representing 29 consultative parties, 28 non-consultative parties, as well as observers and experts. Marking the UAE's inaugural participation, Balalaa highlighted the significance of this milestone, stating, 'We are delighted to join the 47th ATCM as a new non-consultative party. This milestone reflects our nation's unwavering commitment to global cooperation and environmental stewardship. The UAE is dedicated to being proactive in preserving the cryosphere through science, innovation, and collaboration.' Underpinned by national initiatives such as the Emirates Polar Programme, the UAE continues to champion scientific advancement and multilateral collaboration, reinforcing its role as a constructive and responsible actor in addressing global environmental challenges. During the meeting, the UAE actively engaged in bilateral discussions with other countries and stakeholders, exploring opportunities for cooperation in polar research. Informal dialogues were also held to discuss collaborative approaches to advancing scientific knowledge and protecting the environment in the region. As the principal forum for Antarctic governance, the ATCM enables parties to coordinate efforts, strengthen environmental protection, and support peaceful scientific cooperation. This year's discussions addressed key themes including environmental preservation, science collaboration, operational safety, and responsible tourism in the region. The UAE's participation reflects its growing role in global environmental diplomacy and its commitment to multilateral processes that safeguard fragile ecosystems. Looking ahead, the UAE will continue its engagement in the Antarctic Treaty System, with the signing of the Environmental Protocol – a key instrument to protect Antarctica's ecosystems and promote responsible use – representing the next milestone in its contribution to preserving the continent for future generations.
Daily Maverick
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Inside the Trump administration's diplomatic vanishing act at Antarctic Treaty meeting
The 1959 pact — America's brainchild — may be humanity's greatest geopolitical feat, governing the only continent never to see war. Now, as China pulls ahead in polar science, the US may be sabotaging its role in the show that runs the snow. Washington was, for decades, the seemingly implacable keystone of Antarctic governance. But the US delegation failed to table a single discussion paper at the 47th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM). The Milan-hosted meeting — which deliberated the future of Antarctic science, conservation and tourism projects — was held between 24 June and 3 July. But the meeting is also about geopolitics, a continent carved up into territorial slices larger than Greenland. And it's about managing the expectations of the influential countries who made those claims, which remain frozen under the treaty. This dramatic drop in engagement — from contributing over 10% of working and information papers at the 2024 ATCM in India, to offering only the depository-state procedural note in 2025 — seems to mark a striking collapse in US participation in Antarctic diplomacy. Answers to our request for comment were not received by the deadline on Tuesday, 8 July. Virtuoso to metronome 'It has tabled only one paper. That paper is the one it tables every year as the depository, the responsible state for the 1959 treaty and the Madrid Protocol,' said Professor Alan Hemmings, an Antarctic governance expert at Canterbury University in New Zealand. 'This is done by a very professional part of the State Department for all the treaties for which the US is depository.' The meeting document database, locked during the Milan ATCM, flushes out what had been feared by observers ahead of the event. The US registered late and offered little more than that. 'If you want a comparison,' Hemmings proposed, 'at last year's ATCM in India there were something like 249 main papers, working papers or information papers. The US was contributing more than 10% of the total significant diplomatic papers for the ATCM.' Today there are 29 treaty signatories with vetoes at the decision-making table. To get there, you're meant to do a lot of science. But — once you're there — there is no legal obligation to keep doing a lot of science (there is also no agreement on what a lot of science is). Those signatories include Australia, China, Germany, the UK, Russia and South Africa. Watch: Antarctica's Precipice — Reimagining the South Pole without US Commitment In a webinar hosted by Daily Maverick ahead of the tightly sealed, closed-door meeting in the Italian fashion capital, Hemmings had warned of looming US dysfunction in the world's most prestigious scientific pact. With just two weeks to go, he said, he had heard from 'a considerable number of people' that the US had only just confirmed its delegation. Its agenda papers had been a no-show. Now available for public scrutiny, the meeting database confirms that Hemmings, a working scientist and academic in Antarctica since the early 1980s, was correct. The delegation had also not secured a bureaucratic green light essential to engaging meaningfully in treaty talks. 'It had not got the sign-off for its brief. So, what it is able to do without that is not at all clear,' he suggested at the time. Perpetual dissonance Hemmings highlighted 'chaos' stemming from the Trump administration's faltering approach to polar science, suggesting that the apparent dysfunction had trickled down to treaty preparations. 'On a positive note, there's a degree of consistency here,' Hemmings quipped. 'There's a sort of chaotic approach in relation to ice-strengthened and ice-breaking vessels. 'There's obviously chaos in relation to the administration's approach to science generally, including polar science in both polar regions, but significant in the Antarctic as well.' Asked why Donald Trump's 2026 financial year budget request seeks to cancel the lease for the Nathaniel B. Palmer, the only back-up to the Antarctic icebreaker Polar Star, fellow webinar panellist Professor Klaus Dodds noted 'you've got to find some third-party leasing pretty jolly quickly or else you're going to be in trouble in terms of supporting your polar programme'. The Royal Holloway, University of London, geographer is an expert in Antarctic geopolitics. 'You can't do these things on the fly,' Dodds pointed out. 'And my fear is that this is all part of engineering crisis, chaos and havoc. Of course, it then ushers in further cuts and reductions and you somehow blame it on those who've been given a terrible legacy to deal with.' 'Ghost in the machine' The discussion documents submitted ahead of the meeting may now be public. However, the minutes of the live closed-d0or talks will likely only be viewable in a few months. Perhaps more worrying than delegation's flagged meeting performance is its reported disengagement from the treaty's intersessional period — the months between formal meetings where much of the substantive negotiation and collaboration occur. According to Hemmings, 'the US has been largely absent from the intersessional discussions since the last ATCM'. Thus, a Western leader of the Antarctic Treaty System effectively absented itself from shaping the continent's future over the past year. The academic described the US as a 'major player in the history of the ATS ' — and now a fading 'ghost in the machine'. 'Poisoned chalice' Several factors appear to have converged to produce this diplomatic snafu. As Hemmings noted, the delegation in Milan was likely smaller than usual and stripped of its long-standing NGO participants — including, reportedly for the first time in nearly three decades, representatives from the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (Iaato). Even the top US officials attending were relatively new to their leadership roles. Head delegate Ona Hahs, a lawyer by background, was only attending her second ATCM. The new US representative to the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) was doing so for the first time. 'These kinds of transitions happen,' Hemmings acknowledged, 'but in addition to all these other problems, there are these new people who have been given a poisoned chalice.' Missing section at the 'higher levels', sagging symphony Sustained disengagement by the US threatens to weaken the balance of power within the ATS. President Joe Biden's former Antarctic policy chief, William Muntean pointed out that 'no new administration has Antarctica high on its to-do list'. Yet, 'previous new administrations have allowed professional Antarctic experts to meaningfully engage on Antarctic issues. 'By submitting no papers to the ATCM, it appears that the higher levels of the US Department of State were concerned enough by routine action to block that normal engagement, but not interested enough to provide alternative positions.' Pianissimo on purpose: 'At the mercy of other countries' Now an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Muntean argued that the absence of papers did not mean the US no longer supported the treaty or Antarctica. 'However, if the US does not shift its Antarctica policy into gear, it will remain adrift and lose influence in the region and the ATCM, which will leave advancing its interests at the mercy of other countries.' According to a preliminary paper on 2025 Antarctic research trends — led by the University of the Arctic — China is now the world leader in south polar science. 'There's a considerable lowering of expectations,' Hemmings added. 'Good people hope the US doesn't try to say very much. And that tells you everything … He noted that 'so many' officials were 'anxious about not attracting the attention of people higher in the administration'. This year, silence may have passed. 'For now the US can get away with this,' Hemmings said. 'What will it be like next year?' DM
Daily Maverick
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
South Africa's environment minister elevates Antarctica as a ‘national priority'
Dion George says he is taking a big, bold step — putting the wild, frigid seventh continent at the heart of the country's agenda: 'It would be extremely short-sighted if we did not pay attention to it.' South Africa has maintained a presence on Earth's southern frontier since becoming the second country to ratify the Antarctic Treaty — symbolically, it did so during the 1960 winter solstice. This year, the country celebrates seven decades since the South African meteorologist Hannes la Grange became the first African to set a snow boot on Antarctic ice as part of the seminal Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition. In 2028, another date beckons: Seventy years since South Africa, through La Grange, reached the South Pole. Political leadership has rarely afforded the region more than nominal attention. That will change under his tenure, says Minister Dion George of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. 'I am the head of the South African National Antarctic Programme,' George told Daily Maverick on a ministerial demonstration cruise aboard the SA Agulhas II from Durban to Cape Town in May. That is a statement no previous DFFE minister has made. 'I set the tone, I set the direction, I lead the charge,' he says. Antarctica has been promoted to one of three special projects within his office, alongside carbon credits and anti-poaching. '[Antarctica] has fallen a bit behind, so I thought we need to speed up there,' he says. 'It would be extremely, extremely short-sighted of South Africa if we did not pay attention to it.' Pretoria's envoy scoops leadership role at treaty talks In recent years, South Africa's Antarctic diplomatic performance has lacked imagination and leadership. The Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) typically receives hundreds of discussion papers submitted by the 29 consultative (decision-making) states, which are tasked with governing Antarctica for peaceful activities like tourism and science. Under George's predecessor, Barbara Creecy, the taxpayer-funded South African delegation submitted no independent discussion papers to the 2023 ATCM in Helsinki, Finland, or the 2024 ATCM in Kochi, India. George received the baton in June 2024 and acknowledges these failures but promises change at the ATCM now underway in Milan, Italy. The South African delegation already seems to have done something right at the 10-day meeting which ends Thursday, 3 July. Last week, Romi Brammer, a legal adviser in the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, was elected to chair the ATCM's legal negotiations. The treaty is a benchmark diplomatic and scientific achievement. But this year, the ATCM faces an anniversary it is not likely to mark too publicly: 20 years since adopting an annex to assign responsibility for environmental disasters, which has yet to enter into force. It is now up to the likes of Brammer to negotiate progress on this matter and others retarded by the glacially turning wheels of Antarctic consensus (everyone must agree before anything becomes policy). Quick! The office is melting The DFFE and Birdlife South Africa have spent several years raising funds to tackle what they bill as history's largest mouse-eradication effort on any island — they need to raise at least $30-million to save Marion's albatrosses and other seabirds from all being eaten alive by the invasive rodents. Donors include South African billionaire Mark Shuttleworth, but anyone can still pitch in. 'Climate change is a sensitive biosecurity issue,' says George, citing deadly avian flu and mouse infestations at Marion Island, South Africa's sub-Antarctic research station, as bellwethers. Scientists told Daily Maverick that George and his staff had to streamline fragmented Antarctic management across several government departments — a project that Ashley Johnson, South Africa's lead negotiator in Milan, says he has taken on. And then there are the infrastructure humdingers uncovered by Daily Maverick in April, such as Marion's failed generators, which have since been replaced. Antarctica is, basically, a giant melting office. For that reason, George says the fleet of polar tracked vehicles must be replaced and supported by up-to-date scanning technology to avoid 'a whole piece of ice that's going to collapse underneath you'. But wait — how about the eructing elephant seal in the room? South Africa may want multilateral cooperation in Antarctica — but not everyone seems to be playing nice. Russia has been looking for oil and gas at least since the Antarctic mining ban entered into force in 1998 — and it uses Cape Town for logistics. In February 2020, for instance, it issued a bombshell statement from Table Bay harbour saying that it had found '70 billion tons' of Southern Ocean fossil fuels — enough to power the planet for 15 years. Russia calls it 'science'. Some experts call it 'prospecting'. And London might call it shopping. A recent Westminster inquiry, which released its findings in June, stopped just short of dropping the P-word, but politely raised an eyebrow: Moscow's surveys 'cast doubt on compliance with the Protocol's prohibition and risk undermining its authority', the findings say. 'You're not supposed to go and mine in Antarctica — so why are you looking for oil and gas?' George volunteered. 'When it's cold and you can't go there, it's very easy to say, 'Oh no, we're not going to mine, we're not going to do anything there; we're just going to leave it alone.' 'But when it becomes a commodity, when it becomes a valuable piece of land, for example, the behaviour may well start to change.' At the Copenhagen-hosted ministerial climate meeting in May, George held discussions with Greenland and was struck by the changes in polar currents and ice caps. The more they melt, the more accessible they become. 'Maybe there will be a mad scramble for Antarctica,' he says, 'but I think there has to be some kind of order. You can't just have absolute chaos … Antarctica is a rich asset. The agreement must hold — that we all agree you don't go mining; the region must remain a non-militarised zone, even when it is accessible.' What does South Africa actually stand for? Even cautious commentators have started to fear that the US under Donald Trump may withdraw from the treaty to claim and mine Antarctica. Russia, like the US, has historically maintained a basis to claim parts or all of Antarctica. They cannot do so as long as the treaty lasts (or if they remain signatories). In the period between the world wars, the Union of South Africa did attempt to make some sort of half-hearted claim but botched it in a diplomatic comedy of errors. However, South Africa's 2021 Antarctic strategy rejects the idea of territorial claims — a marked contrast to seven of the treaty's 12 consultative founding parties. Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the UK have staked vast territorial claims that are frozen by the treaty and that most of the world does not recognise. 'We did not make a claim because we don't believe you can,' George says. 'That's the position we take… 'South Africa's position is that we're non-aligned,' he says. 'We have South African interests that we must look after — and we don't get told who we befriend. We're friends with everyone.' This balancing act between BRICS states and the West is what gives South Africa its moral authority in Antarctic diplomacy, he argues. 'When I became a new minister and travelled a lot for the climate, every single country we came across wanted to have a bilateral. The reason is that the voice of South Africa matters… 'When you're looking for the voice of reason, often it's us.' That may be so, but George's Democratic Alliance opposition party is on record as vocally condemning Russia's full-scale illegal invasion of Ukraine as well as ' Russian energy prospecting in Antarctica '. Now it is walking a tightrope of tenuous moral ambiguity in a coalition government that has taken Israel to court over atrocities in Gaza, but has hardly squared up to Moscow in a similar fashion. Still, President Cyril Ramaphosa received President Volodymyr Zelensky in April. Both the Russian and Ukrainian fleets use Cape Town as their logistical transit to Antarctica. In George's view, a collaborative ethos defines the Antarctic community. 'It's harsh, it is cold — and if somebody got into difficulty, of course we're going to help.' George says he has also opened diplomatic conversations with China about establishing a marine protected area to the north of South Africa's East Antarctic base — an initiative that has stalled for years due to Beijing and Moscow's opposition. 'I have disagreed with China on a number of things,' he reveals. 'We want the marine reserve. We know what we want and we are clear.' George's Antarctic coup While Pretoria has maintained an unbroken commitment to its treaty obligations throughout the country's political turmoil, its focus has been operational rather than diplomatic. If George actually succeeds in shaping a revitalised Antarctic policy — one that reflects both science and statecraft — South Africa may finally claim a seat as a leading voice for the Global South on the coldest continent. 'Antarctica was not on the radar when I stepped into the department. It is now,' says the minister, who inserted Antarctica into the 2024-29 national medium-term development plan during a Cabinet lekgotla in January. Because we are jaded journalists, we asked his department for proof. Scrutinising the document sent to us, we found George's coup: there, on page 138, sandwiched between sections called 'Increased feelings of safety of women and children in communities' and 'secured cyber space', we spotted the actual frozen continent. Together with wildlife trafficking, George had struck a coup for a place that, to many, seems very far from the national agenda. Here, he had managed to nudge 'strengthened protection and sustainable management of Antarctica' as a priority into the section dedicated to 'effective border security'. In a country of immense social need, South Africa's Antarctic investments may be questioned by some, says George. 'They say, 'Let's rather spend the money on something else. In my opinion, it makes no sense to do that.' 'We are the only African country in Antarctica,' he says. As geopolitical posturing rises, South Africa has to be ready, he adds — singling out China's plans to build a sixth station, as well as Iran, which last year suggested a desire to join the treaty. 'If you drew the line down from Iran, you would actually bump into Antarctica. There's nothing in between. 'Yup,' he smiles. 'I read up about that.' George had planned to travel to Sanae IV earlier this year, but scheduling conflicts intervened. 'I do intend to do that as soon as the weather permits.' DM
Daily Maverick
29-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Putin's oil and gas man joins secretive Antarctic Treaty meeting in Milan
The Russian official — until recently in charge of the firm that has stitched together vast maps of South Pole hydrocarbons — is helping negotiate Putin's 'scientific' interests at the prestigious diplomatic gathering in Milan. It may not be insignificant that Russia's delegation at the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) in the Italian fashion capital includes Pavel Lunev. Until April 2023, Lunev had been head of the Russian state firm responsible for mapping Antarctica's oil, gas and other minerals — at least since the region's mining ban entered into force in 1998. That firm is owned by Rosgeo — the Kremlin's mineral explorer. Indeed, Lunev would land a weighty promotion after Rosgeo's seismic survey ship had once more headed via Cape Town to the Antarctic seabed in the austral summer of 2023 for another season of 'scientific research'. That event sparked environmental protests at the port city's V&A Waterfront — one of South Africa's most popular tourist destinations — and a letter of demand by 29 South African groups, which called on Pretoria to intervene. Pretoria's answer at the time? The Russian state mineral explorer was free to pursue its interests under the treaty's 'freedom of scientific investigation' principle — also allowed by the region's mining ban. Moscow's response? Giving Lunev a top job in Antarctica: that is, heading the Russian Antarctic Expedition, the state agency that executes Moscow's operational interests in the frigid southern frontier. Who is Pavel Lunev? A trained palaeontologist with tousled hair and a smile fit for the cover of Outside magazine, Lunev now appears in a suit and tie in a Russian press statement on the delegation's work in Milan — wearing a look that says, 'I'm not outside right now.' Lunev previously told Daily Maverick that geological and geophysical surveys by Rosgeo's Polar Marine Geosurvey Expedition (PMGE) was 'no different from the work conducted by other members' signed up to Antarctica's environmental laws. Indeed, some of PMGE's work includes standard sciences such as glacial evolution. The Rosgeo subsidiary had also probed 'the glacial processes, dynamics and evolution of the ice sheet, and the stages of Antarctic glaciation' and 'the nature and foundation of the Earth's crust', said Lunev. However, recent developments also involve: A July 2024 Russian-Chinese Antarctic geology paper that suggests nothing about prospecting, but appears in the state mining journal. Paper author Professor German Leitchenkov, a PMGE collaborator who has extensively researched Antarctica's mineral 'potential', presented his research on sub-ice sampling at an international Antarctic science conference held in Chile in August 2024; PMGE's stated goals up to at least 2030, which include identifying the Southern Ocean's 'mineral raw material potential'; A 2022 PMGE petroleum geology paper, which describes the 'high oil and gas potential' in the D'Urville Sea off East Antarctica; A February 2020 Rosgeo statement, which used Cape Town port to announce 70 billion tons of hydrocarbons off East Antarctica (500 billion barrels or 15 times global annual oil consumption); and … Documented claims betraying the Russian state's geopolitical motivations: 'The works of the PMGE aimed at studying the geological structure and mineral resources of the Antarctic are of geopolitical nature. They ensure guarantees of Russia's full participation in any form of possible future development of the Antarctic mineral resources — from designing the mechanisms for regulating such activities up to their direct implementation,' PMGE revealed in 2017. Leitchenkov's joint paper in a July 2024 edition of the Russian state journal, the 'Exploration and Protection of Mineral Resources'. (Image: Screenshot) Westminster releases findings on Russian hydrocarbon surveys Meanwhile, Westminster's newly released findings on the UK's Antarctic interests, issued this month, devote a section to 'commercial mining' and the Russian activities uncovered by Daily Maverick. According to the report, 'the Russian state-owned vessel [Akademik] Alexander Karpinsky has conducted seismic surveys in Antarctic waters, identifying potential hydrocarbon reserves estimated at 70 billion tonnes' — an activity that 'raised serious concerns' during the inquiry. In addition to findings published in October 2021 and May 2022, in May 2024 Daily Maverick also revealed that the Karpinsky had spent six summers since 2011 surveying for oil and gas in an area counterclaimed by Argentina, Chile and the UK. Asked to explain the Russian activities during Westminster's May 2024 inquiry, UK Polar Regions head Jane Rumble claimed that 'Russia has been tackled on this before and, in fact, has assured the ATCM on multiple occasions that this is a science programme, so we'll keep it under review'. Just, in fact, two 'assurances' The June 2025 inquiry findings quote Rumble's claim. However, the ATCM database contains no record of any government, including Rumble's, 'tackling' Russia 'on this' matter. As for 'multiple assurances', Russia had offered just one by the time Rumble made her claim. It was offered nearly a quarter of a century before at the 2002 Warsaw ATCM — where the Russian delegation did argue scientific intent in a draft document published by Daily Maverick. Yet, this draft also refuses to rule out 'utilisation of the Antarctic mineral wealth' which may only occur 'in the indefinitely remote future'. Russia delivered one additional 'assurance' — on 24 May 2024, but only after Rumble had delivered her testimony on 8 May. A media firestorm erupted after Rumble's testimony, capped by Chilean president Gabriel Boric twice tweeting that Santiago would defend its claimed territory against oil exploitation. So, not everyone has approached Russia's self-declared interests in Antarctic oil and gas like a geopolitical wet-floor sign. In February 2024, Washington — the treaty depositary — placed the Karpinsky under energy sanctions. And the US delegation had led an initiative reaffirming Antarctica's mining ban at the 2023 ATCM in Helsinki, Finland. Ukraine, immediately after the 2024 ATCM in Kochi, India, said Russia was blocking environmental initiatives, which 'once again confirms that the true intentions of its presence in Antarctica is mining'. Russia also reaffirmed the ban in Helsinki and Rumble, in her inquiry defence, said that 'there isn't any evidence that would point to a breach of the treaty. You would need different equipment between surveying and actual exploitation. There is not a shift to it, but, yes, we are watching it very closely.' Rumble has not responded to queries sent since last year. This is 'manifestly prospecting … what the Russians are doing' Some experts disagree that the act of putting a symbolic signature on the reaffirmation of the mining ban refutes the documented reality of Rosgeo's activities. Westminster's inquiry findings, in fact, point out that the 'Article 7' mining ban 'prohibits 'any activity relating to mineral resources, other than scientific research''. While the ban does not define a 'mineral resource' activity, the inquiry findings do. 'Any activity relating to mineral resources,' the findings say, 'includes prospecting, exploration and exploitation for commercial purposes'. And it is Antarctic governance expert Professor Alan Hemmings, of New Zealand's University of Canterbury, who told Daily Maverick in a recent webinar that the 'Karpinsky has been engaged in what is manifestly mineral prospecting'. Hemmings explains: 'Article 7 prohibits mineral resource activities, and mineral resource activities were defined in an earlier treaty that didn't enter into force quite carefully. And among the things that constitute mineral resource activities was prospecting. 'That's what the Russians are doing.' Why is Russia in Milan? It is unclear what submissions the Russian delegation will be making at this year's ATCM, which concludes on Thursday, 3 July. Yet, since the details of these 'prospecting' activities have not been tabled at any ATCM, it is highly unlikely that Moscow's envoys are now in Milan to formally discuss that contentious matter. The agenda remains opaque because the meeting has been a closed-door event since the treaty was signed in 1959 and that is why the press is stopped from reporting on the live substance of the 10-day talks. This year, the Russian statement from Milan says, the discussions are expected to focus on matters such as science and tourism. Lucia Sala Simeon, the only journalist reportedly at 30 minutes of the 'public' opening plenary, noted that she was briefly allowed into the venue. 'I was accompanied by a member of staff — who kept a close eye on me,' notes the Milan-based reporter. 'I was the only journalist there.' She added: 'I had to leave the room and was escorted out; in the next few days, I would no longer be allowed inside the venue, not even in the lounge. So, I'll be staying outside in the garden, like a homeless [person].' Italy, South Africa — reactions, non-reactions Italy's foreign ministry has not responded to Daily Maverick's multiple queries first sent August 2024. Treaty party South Africa, under a revamped 'conservation'-focused delegation, in an interview said Pretoria's 'non-aligned' stance was an advantage in negotiating with the most obstructive actors at the consultative table. Thus, Russia and China, which have — among others — used their vetoes to block an emperor penguin rescue plan at recent ATCMs. South Africa says it supports emperor penguin protection. 'We want a much more active engagement with the Russian and Chinese delegations,' said South Africa's lead negotiator, Ashley Johnson. 'Perhaps we can edge them closer to a conservationist approach.' Rosgeo's defence of its activities, shared with Daily Maverick in October 2021, can be read here. However, Russian authorities have not responded to our repeated attempts to reach them since Lunev's most recent response in May 2022. The Russian delegation did not respond to queries on Sunday. DM
Daily Maverick
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Top Antarctic meeting kicks off behind ‘Ice Curtain' as transparency goes up in flames
Antarctica's fate is debated in secrecy behind closed doors and confusion in Milan. The world's premier meeting on the governance of Earth's most threatened continent — representing 10% of the planet — opened today in Milan behind closed doors. The 47th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) involves 29 consultative states — including the US, China, Russia and South Africa — which gather annually to deliberate the future of the frozen, but melting, wilderness. There are also 29 observer states with no decision-making powers. During the course of the next week and a half, the decision-maker states will debate a range of governance matters relating to the Antarctic as part of a 1959 treaty which is devoted to peaceful activities like science and tourism. Under the treaty's environmental constitution, the Madrid Protocol, mining is banned. The live substance of the meeting, seen as diplomatically sensitive, has always been held behind closed doors. According to some sources, only 30 minutes of the 150-minute opening plenary of the ATCM on Tuesday morning were public. However, according to the meeting rules, the entire 'opening plenary session shall be held in public, other sessions shall be held in private, unless the Meeting shall determine otherwise'. No decisions have been published on the committee's website to indicate why the opening plenary was closed or partially closed. The meeting is hosted in alphabetical order by a different consultative state every year. This year hosted under a far-right coalition government led by Giorgia Meloni and her party, Brothers of Italy, the meeting's organising committee has yet to respond to Daily Maverick's repeated questions about how to access the now-concluded opening plenary — first sent in August 2024. And yet the British Antarctic Survey this month released science showing that it's not just South Pole transparency that seems to be going up in flames. According to the scientific agency, the population of emperor penguins — whose protection China and Russia have blocked at the consultative meeting in recent years — has declined 22% over the 15 years to 2024. The reported plunge in numbers of these iconic flightless ambassadors relates to a 'key sector of the continent' of the West Antarctic. 'This compares with an earlier estimate — 2009 and 2018 — of a 9.5% reduction across Antarctica as a whole,' the agency reports. In another study released this week, the agency reveals that Signy Island seal populations have sharply declined by about 50% over 50 years — a trend that is 'strongly linked to shifts in sea ice; when it forms and melts each year, and how long it lasts'. Next year, the meeting will be hosted by Japan. A prominent Japanese polar academic, Kobe University's Professor Akiho Shibata, is in Milan this week and reported on his Facebook page that multiple delegates were kicked out of the treaty's environmental protection committee session on Monday. 'A confusion at the beginning with just too small a room (Brown Hall) with too few chairs; those standing, including me, were ordered to leave the room for security reasons!' exclaimed Shibata, an Antarctic law expert. In a twist that would be farcical if the ecological and geopolitical stakes were not so high, Shibata added: 'Because of that, I could not observe an important discussion on 'Enhancing the Transparency in the ATCM and CEP [Committee for Environmental Protection] proposed by the Netherlands, Australia and Korea — more media access to the meetings; more proactive public outreach; and possible increase of experts).' Shibata, an accredited delegate, wrote earlier this week: 'Very difficult to find the way in, with a lot of construction going on.' He advised: 'Have extra time to come on Monday for CEP and Tuesday for plenary.' The meeting has been criticised by other experts for its 'Ice Curtain' approach — a phrase coined by Tasmania-based polar author and journalist Andrew Darby. Unlike the high-profile UN Ocean Conference held in Nice, France, earlier this month, the Antarctic meeting was not broadly advertised. The Antarctic Treaty is not part of the UN. When asked, South African official Ashley Johnson promptly replied to our queries, but seemed as mystified as the press. For streaming details of the opening plenary, Johnson suggested that we contact the organising committee, which has not responded to our questions. Despite being sent multiple unaddressed emails requesting information on media access to the public session, organising committee official Orazio Guanciale last month claimed that Italy was 'still waiting for … say … receiving the interest of members of the press to participate in the public session of Tuesday, 24 June'. 'Of course we are open to facilitate to the maximum extent possible the participation of the press and … say … the broadcasting of the public session.' He noted: 'The issue of transparency is really very, very important … say … the Antarctic Treaty embodies the principle of transparency… ' Per tradition, the documents discussed at the meeting are to be unlocked on the secretariat archive directly after the talks on 3 June — however, the actual live minutes will only be released after scrutiny by the consultative states some months later. 'Closed discussions can be useful for facilitating open discussion and exchange of ideas. However, this has to be balanced with the need for transparency and accountability,' Claire Christian, executive director of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, a network of NGOs, told Daily Maverick. 'Other international organisations have implemented various practices to promote transparency without compromising their effectiveness or ability to have productive discussions. As an example, papers for the meeting could be made publicly available ahead of the meeting so that the public could better understand the issues that are being discussed.' DM
