The International Seabed Authority will continue trying to balance pressures to accelerate or delay deep-sea mining activities in areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction.

Ministers of the environment, heads of UN organizations, and lead negotiators called for focusing on scaling up implementation, underscoring that complex global challenges “must be met with cooperation, compromise, and collective action.” Nine thematic roundtable sessions explored cross-cutting implementation issues at the local, regional, and global levels.

Delegates faced the challenge of how the Basel Convention can meet growing, complex waste-related challenges such as trade in plastics, electronic waste (e-waste), batteries, and used textiles, while staying relevant to longstanding challenges such as ship recycling.

Participants welcomed growing recognition of the role of the Ocean in climate ambition, and several expressed optimism that momentum arising from the Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue may show the way to tangible action and commitments at COP 31.