Top Antarctic meeting kicks off behind ‘Ice Curtain’ as transparency goes up in flames

The world’s premier meeting on the governance of Earth’s most threatened continent — representing 10% of the planet — opened today in Milan behind closed doors.

The 47th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) involves 29 consultative states — including the US, China, Russia and South Africa — which gather annually to deliberate the future of the frozen, but melting, wilderness. 

There are also 29 observer states with no decision-making powers. 

During the course of the next week and a half, the decision-maker states will debate a range of governance matters relating to the Antarctic as part of a 1959 treaty which is devoted to peaceful activities like science and tourism. Under the treaty’s environmental constitution, the Madrid Protocol, mining is banned.

The live substance of the meeting, seen as diplomatically sensitive, has always been held behind closed doors.

According to some sources, only 30 minutes of the 150-minute opening plenary of the ATCM on Tuesday morning were public. 

However, according to the meeting rules, the entire “opening plenary session shall be held in public, other sessions shall be held in private, unless the Meeting shall determine otherwise”.

No decisions have been published on the committee’s website to indicate why the opening plenary was closed or partially closed. 

The meeting is hosted in alphabetical order by a different consultative state every year. 

This year hosted under a far-right coalition government led by Giorgia Meloni and her party, Brothers of Italy, the meeting’s organising committee has yet to respond to Daily Maverick’s repeated questions about how to access the now-concluded opening plenary — first sent in August 2024. 

And yet the British Antarctic Survey this month released science showing that it’s not just South Pole transparency that seems to be going up in flames. 

According to the scientific agency, the population of emperor penguins — whose protection China and Russia have blocked at the consultative meeting in recent years — has declined 22% over the 15 years to 2024. 

The reported plunge in numbers of these iconic flightless ambassadors relates to a “key sector of the continent” of the West Antarctic.

“This compares with an earlier estimate — 2009 and 2018 — of a 9.5% reduction across Antarctica as a whole,” the agency reports.

In another study released this week, the agency reveals that Signy Island seal populations have sharply declined by about 50% over 50 years — a trend that is “strongly linked to shifts in sea ice; when it forms and melts each year, and how long it lasts”.

Next year, the meeting will be hosted by Japan. A prominent Japanese polar academic, Kobe University’s Professor Akiho Shibata, is in Milan this week and reported on his Facebook page that multiple delegates were kicked out of the treaty’s environmental protection committee session on Monday.  

“A confusion at the beginning with just too small a room (Brown Hall) with too few chairs; those standing, including me, were ordered to leave the room for security reasons!” exclaimed Shibata, an Antarctic law expert.

In a twist that would be farcical if the ecological and geopolitical stakes were not so high, Shibata added:

“Because of that, I could not observe an important discussion on ‘Enhancing the Transparency in the ATCM and CEP [Committee for Environmental Protection] proposed by the Netherlands, Australia and Korea — more media access to the meetings; more proactive public outreach; and possible increase of experts).” 

Shibata, an accredited delegate, wrote earlier this week: “Very difficult to find the way in, with a lot of construction going on.” 

He advised: “Have extra time to come on Monday for CEP and Tuesday for plenary.”

The meeting has been criticised by other experts for its “Ice Curtain” approach — a phrase coined by Tasmania-based polar author and journalist Andrew Darby. 

Unlike the high-profile UN Ocean Conference held in Nice, France, earlier this month, the Antarctic meeting was not broadly advertised. The Antarctic Treaty is not part of the UN.

When asked, South African official Ashley Johnson promptly replied to our queries, but seemed as mystified as the press. 

For streaming details of the opening plenary, Johnson suggested that we contact the organising committee, which has not responded to our questions. 

Despite being sent multiple unaddressed emails requesting information on media access to the public session, organising committee official Orazio Guanciale last month claimed that Italy was “still waiting for … say … receiving the interest of members of the press to participate in the public session of Tuesday, 24 June”. 

“Of course we are open to facilitate to the maximum extent possible the participation of the press and … say … the broadcasting of the public session.”

He noted: “The issue of transparency is really very, very important … say ... the Antarctic Treaty embodies the principle of transparency… ”

Per tradition, the documents discussed at the meeting are to be unlocked on the secretariat archive directly after the talks on 3 June — however, the actual live minutes will only be released after scrutiny by the consultative states some months later.

“Closed discussions can be useful for facilitating open discussion and exchange of ideas. However, this has to be balanced with the need for transparency and accountability,” Claire Christian, executive director of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, a network of NGOs, told Daily Maverick. “Other international organisations have implemented various practices to promote transparency without compromising their effectiveness or ability to have productive discussions. As an example, papers for the meeting could be made publicly available ahead of the meeting so that the public could better understand the issues that are being discussed.” DM