Inside the battle for top job that will decide the future of deep-sea mining

Leticia Carvalho is clear what the problem is with the body she hopes to be elected to run: “Trust is broken and leadership is missing.” Later this week, at the headquarters of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston, Jamaica, nations negotiating rules governing deep-sea mining face a critical vote that could impact the nascent industry for years: who should be the next leader of the regulatory body?

Carvalho, sponsored by Brazil, is in the running against the current secretary general, Michael Lodge, a British lawyer , who is being sponsored by Kiribati, a small Pacific state.

The battle for leadership might sound to the average person like a remote, technical concern. But the election of the authority’s secretary general comes at a pivotal moment for deep-sea mining and therefore for the future of the world’s oceans.

Calls for a pause on exploitation of the seabed are intensifying, with 27 nations now arguing that there is not enough data to begin mining.

If deep-sea mining goes ahead, scientists warn of large-scale, severe and irreversible harm to global ocean ecosystems that are already threatened by the climate and biodiversity crises.

Related: Deep-sea mining: why is interest growing and what are the risks?

The ISA is governed by 168 member states, plus the EU, and has a dual mandate: to authorise and control mining “for the common heritage of all mankind” and to protect the marine environment from harmful impacts.

During his eight-year tenure, Lodge has been accused of closeness to the mining industry , overstepping his neutral role and of presiding over an authority that lacks transparency . A New York Times piece published earlier this month also accused him of pushing countries to accelerate the start of deep-sea mining. He denies these claims.

Carvalho, a Brazilian oceanographer and international diplomat, says it is time for “meaningful transformation” at the seabed authority. “The current deep divide of views among the state parties in the council is heavily due to the lack of trust and leadership, on top of whatever scientific gaps we may have or asymmetry of knowledge between the members.”

So far, the authority has issued 31 exploration contracts, sponsored by 14 nations, in an area covering 1.5m sq km of the world’s seabed, mostly in the equatorial Pacific between Hawaii and Mexico. These contracts, with countries including China, Russia, South Korea, India, Britain, France, Poland, Brazil, Japan, Jamaica and Belgium, allow exploration of the seabed but not commercial mining.

No exploitation contracts, which would permit mining to go ahead, have yet been issued, but efforts by industry and some states have accelerated the race to mine.

One firm, The Metals Company (TMC), based in Canada, and partnered with the Pacific states of Nauru, Tonga and Kiribati, has said it will apply for permission to mine later this year, before rules and regulations are likely to be in place.

Carvalho claims it is Lodge’s alleged close relationship with this company that is the problem. Trust, she claims, began to ebb away in 2018 after the secretary general appeared in a video wearing a hard hat with a “DeepGreen” logo on it. DeepGreen is the former name of TMC.

“What is intriguing is the leadership of a multilateral organisation embracing one company’s demands, pushing it into the ISA council’s process to develop a mining code,” she says.

“There is a problem with being seen to be too close to a company that is driven by results for its investors. ISA is a regulatory body with a dual mandate: determining the rules and procedures for deep-sea mining while protecting the deep-sea ecosystems.”

Carvalho, who worked as a regulator in Brazil’s oil industry, believes the rules governing deep-sea mining will take time and that no mining application should be approved before they are completed. “ISA has to find ways to compromise and reach consensus. Scientific evidence, broader participation and inclusive knowledge are the key basis of consensual decisions.”

The New York Times investigation featured an admission from the ambassador of Kiribati, Teburoro Tito, who confirmed to the newspaper that he attempted to persuade Carvalho to drop out of the race by offering her a possible high-level staff job at the agency.

Lodge told the Times he was not involved in discussion nor was he party to Tito’s alleged proposal.

The paper also claimed supporters of each candidate accused the other of attempting to influence the election outcome by paying travel and other costs of delegates who might otherwise not vote.

Carvalho, who took leave from her position as the head of the UN environment protection agency’s marine and freshwater branch in order to campaign for secretary general, describes the allegations against her as “mindblowing” and “absolute nonsense”. “There is no flow of money different from the official budget,” she says.

Related: The otherworldly species threatened by deep-sea mining – in pictures

Lodge, who declined to be interviewed by the Guardian, provided a statement from the secretariat in response to allegations that he was too close to TMC: “The secretary general categorically denies any insinuations of inappropriate relationships with contractors, which represent an unacceptable attempt to degrade the integrity of ISA and its dedicated staff without credible evidence.”

In regard to the claims that Lodge attempted to influence the election outcome, the statement said: “The secretariat will not comment on allegations and assertions based on hearsay.”