IISD/ENB Summary Meeting Reports

Environmental externalities, underwater cultural heritage, test mining, regional environmental management plans, environmental compensation fund, royalties, safety measures… The list goes on. New elements continue to be added to the already complex and interlinked group of elements that need to be

Parties adopted a decision operationalizing the new loss and damage fund and a number of parties announced pledges for its initial capitalization. But negotiations were difficult on the other central outcomes: the first Global Stocktake, the Global Goal on Adaptation

The Council adopted five decisions, including: to determine by 1 June 2024 on extending the International Tropical Timber Agreement, 2006 to 2029; projects for sustainable forest management and related objectives; its budget and work programme for 2024-25; and a four-year

As concerns about the scourge of plastic pollution mount worldwide, delegates shared their views on the “full life cycle of plastic,” with some favoring measures addressing plastic production, and others favoring downstream measures to eliminate plastic waste. Still others focused

Delegates continued work on the development of exploitation regulations for seabed mining, following a roadmap adopted in July 2023. However, regulating commercial exploitation of deep-sea minerals is no easy task, and there is no real indicator of progress for assessing

The meeting is expected to clarify possible scenarios given the rapid approach of the deadline triggered by Nauru’s request to apply for approval of a deep-sea mineral exploitation plan.

The pressure is on as negotiators face impending deadlines for whether to adopt regulations, rules, and procedures to move forward with commercial exploitation of the deep sea or whether to call for a moratorium or precautionary pause on deep sea

Despite more progress at this two-week session than over the last decade, delegates were unable to reach consensus on a new high seas treaty addressing marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction and, instead, suspended the session, to be resumed

As environmental concerns continue to grow, the prospect of extracting mineral resources from the deep seabed has generated quite a debate, which permeated the work of the Assembly.