BRAZALIAN MARINE SCIENTIST LETICIA CARVALHO TO LEAD INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY

Brazilian national Leticia Carvalho defeated the incumbent Michael Lodge to secure the top job in a bitterly contested election billed as a pivotal moment for the fate of a multi-trillion-dollar industry.

Leticia Carvalho’s four-year term as International Seabody Authority (ISA) Chief will start on Jan. 1, 2025. Carvalho had previously served as head of the U.N.’s marine and freshwater branch. She stated that taking care of the management of the regulator itself, will be one of her top priorities.

In a virtual interview with CNBC, Carvalho said, “I think it is quite meaningful that someone new, fresh and with a different perspective is coming to take over.” She also added that, “My obligation as Secretary General is to set the stage for them to be able to finalize the work by the end of next year. And I will do everything in my power to do it”.

The lesser known ISA is a United Nations regulator that oversees deep-sea mining and is an authority that is responsible for exploration and conservation of earth’s 54% of the world's ocean surface area.

There is currently a lot of discussion regarding the future of deep-sea mining and the world's oceans, which is why Carvalho was appointed. Using large machinery, deep-sea mining is a contentious method of extracting metals and minerals, including cobalt, nickel, copper, and manganese, from the seabed, where they accumulate as potato-sized nodules.