At the end of June, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) held the first face-to-face meeting of the Intersessional Expert Group (IEG) established to develop binding environmental thresholds for deep-sea mining in Kingston, Jamaica. Researcher Zhang Dongsheng from the Key Laboratory of Marine Ecosystem Dynamics, MNR of the SIO and Assistant Researcher Wang Jun from the State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics attended the meeting as representatives of the working group experts from China.

Environmental thresholds are a critical technological bottleneck for conducting environmental impact assessments of deep-sea mining, and the establishment of environmental threshold standards is an essential prerequisite for achieving a balance between the sustainable utilization of deep-sea mineral resources and marine environmental protection. The IEG is responsible for organizing and reviewing existing scientific information to determine appropriate indicators for threshold development and providing scientific and technical support for the work of the Legal and Technical Commission. The IEG consists of 30 experts from 19 different countries, focusing on toxicity, suspended sediment turbidity and re-sedimentation, underwater noise and light pollution.

This seminar is part of the standard and guideline development process authorized by the ISA Council and led by the Legal and Technical Commission (LTC). The participating IEG members engaged in extensive discussions, coordinated the progress of each group, reviewed existing environmental baseline data, assessed the scientific knowledge base for existing threshold development, defined the scope of thresholds, proposed methods and technical routes for threshold development, recognized critical knowledge gaps in threshold development, and formulated the next work plan.

The establishment of binding environmental thresholds will be used to regulate the impact of deep-sea mining on the environment and align with the obligations stipulated in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the 1994 Agreement, as well as the rules, regulations and procedures of the International Seabed Authority. The SIO has signed a bilateral cooperation agreement with the International Seabed Authority, establishing an institutionalized partnership, and this participation is also an important step to further deepen bilateral cooperation.