时代周刊:散落在太平洋深处的黑矿石--解锁气候密码(6)

The 168-member-country bureaucracy was tasked with organizing, regulating and controlling all mineral-related activities in the international seabed area “for the benefi t of mankind as a whole,” with proceeds shared among those who developed the resources and the rest of the international community.

这个由168个国家组成的官僚机构的任务是，“为了全人类的利益”，组织、管理和控制国际海底区域所有与矿物有关的活动，收益由资源开发者和国际社会的其他成员共享。

The treaty gives the ISA two almost mutually exclusive mandates², says Aline Jaeckel, a specialist on international seabed-mining law at Potsdam University’s Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Germany:

德国波茨坦大学高级可持续发展研究所（IASS）的国际海底采矿法专家Aline Jaeckel说，该条约赋予国际海底管理局两项几乎相互排斥的任务：

one to administer the mineral resources for the good of mankind, and the other to protect the marine³ environment from any harm from mining.

一项是为人类的福祉管理矿产资源，另一项是保护海洋环境免受采矿的伤害。

“They are almost impossible to comply with because any mining will have environmental consequences.

“这是难以遵守的，因为任何采矿都会产生环境后果。

There is no way around that. So the question then becomes, How much harm is acceptable?”

这是没办法的事。因此，问题就变成了，我们可以接受多大程度的伤害？”

Those confl icting mandates may explain why the ISA has yet to issue a single commercial mining permit— and why, in its nearly three decades of existence, it hasn’t even agreed on mining regulations, let alone how revenue from the globally owned resource should be distributed.

这些相互矛盾的任务可能解释了为什么国际海底管理局还没有颁发一个商业采矿许可证--以及为什么在其存在的近三十年中，甚至没有就采矿法规达成一致，更不用说来自全球拥有的资源的收入应该如何分配。

So far, the ISA has awarded 18 exploration contracts in the CCZ to contractors⁴ representing China, Russia and the U.K., along with several other European, Asian and island nation-states.

到目前为止，国际海底管理局已经将CC区的18份勘探合同授予了代表中国、俄罗斯和英国的承包商，以及其他一些欧洲和亚洲国家，以及其他几个欧洲、亚洲和岛屿国家美国。

The U.S., which has not yet ratified⁵ UNCLOS, tacitly abides⁶ by it but has not sought any mining contracts.

美国尚未批准《联合国海洋法公约》，但默默遵守了该公约，但没有寻求达成任何采矿合同。

Once the mining regulations are formally established, exploration-contract holders⁷ can apply for commercial-mining permits.

一旦采矿条例正式确立，勘探合同持有人可以申请商业采矿许可证。

According to the ISA’s mandate¹, mining revenue from those concessions⁸ should be equitably⁹ shared among members.

根据国际海底管理局的授权，来自这些特许权的采矿收入应在成员之间公平分享。

Yet industry watchers expect that the organization will establish a royalty¹⁰ fee somewhere from 2% to 6% when it next meets in Kingston, Jamaica.

然而，行业观察人士预计，当该组织在牙买加金斯敦举行下一次会议时，将确定2%至6%的特许权使用费。

A meeting scheduled to take place in July was postponed¹¹ indefinitely because of the pandemic.

原定于7月举行的会议因新冠疫情而被无限期推迟。

In 2019, a group of 47 ISA members from Africa calculated that the proposed payment regime could lead to a return to member nations of less than $100,000 a year per country, hardly enough to “foster healthy development of the world economy,” as stipulated¹² by the UNCLOS directive to the ISA.

2019年，一个由47个来自非洲的国际海底管理局成员组成的小组计算出，拟议的付款制度可能让每个成员国每年的收入不到10万美元，几乎不足以 “促进世界经济的健康发展”，正如《联合国海洋法公约》对国际海底管理局的指示所规定的。

1 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

2 mandates   

托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• Individual mandates would require all people to purchase health insurance. 个人托管要求所有人都要购买健康保险。
• While I agree with those benefits, I'm not a supporter of mandates. 我同意上述好处，我不是授权软件的支持者。

3 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

4 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 ratified   

v.批准，签认（合约等）( ratify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The treaty was declared invalid because it had not been ratified. 条约没有得到批准，因此被宣布无效。
• The treaty was ratified by all the member states. 这个条约得到了所有成员国的批准。

6 abides   

容忍( abide的第三人称单数 )； 等候； 逗留； 停留

参考例句：

• He abides by his friends. 他忠于朋友。
• He always abides by the law. 他素来守法。

7 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。

8 concessions   

n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权

参考例句：

• The firm will be forced to make concessions if it wants to avoid a strike. 要想避免罢工，公司将不得不作出一些让步。
• The concessions did little to placate the students. 让步根本未能平息学生的愤怒。

9 equitably   

公平地

参考例句：

• We should equitably assess historical figures. 我们应该公正地评价历史人物。
• Land was more equitably distributed. 土地得到更公平合理的分配。

10 royalty   

n.皇家，皇族

参考例句：

• She claims to be descended from royalty.她声称她是皇室后裔。
• I waited on tables，and even catered to royalty at the Royal Albert Hall.我做过服务生， 甚至在皇家阿伯特大厅侍奉过皇室的人。

11 postponed   

vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发）

参考例句：

• The trial was postponed indefinitely. 审讯无限期延迟。
• The game has already been postponed three times. 这场比赛已经三度延期了。

12 stipulated   

vt.& vi.规定；约定adj.[法]合同规定的

参考例句：

• A delivery date is stipulated in the contract. 合同中规定了交货日期。
• Yes, I think that's what we stipulated. 对呀，我想那是我们所订定的。 来自辞典例句