“Kingston’s Disappointment Should Not Extinguish Our Hope for the Deep Ocean”

Credit: Joseph Barrientos on UnsplashOpinion by James Alix Michel (victoria, seychelles)Monday, August 03, 2026Inter Press Service VICTORIA, Seychelles, August 3 (IPS) - Earlier this year, I called publicly for a precautionary pause on deep-sea mining, arguing that it is not a rejection of progress, but a commitment to sound science. I made that appeal because I believed governments meeting this year at the International Seabed Authority (ISA) would finally choose caution over haste. Watching the results emerge from Kingston, Jamaica, over these past weeks, I must admit to real disappointment. But I want to be equally clear: disappointment is not defeat, and there is still every reason for hope.The 31st session of the ISA concluded its work in Kingston with the Council ending two weeks of negotiations on 24 July without adopting the long-debated Mining Code. Unresolved issues, ranging from environmental safeguards and liability to inspection, compliance and benefit-sharing, remain exactly that: unresolved. Governments including France, Costa Rica, South Africa, Mexico, Germany, Palau and Brazil rightly insisted these gaps must be closed before any commercial mining is contemplated....