U of T student visits Geneva to attend the UN Global Plastics Treaty Negotiations

The world is facing a plastics pollution problem.

According to the United Nations (UN), 19 to 23 million tonnes of plastic waste leaks into waterways every year which has major global consequences – such as disrupting habitats, limiting aquatic ecosystems’ ability to adapt to climate change, and even impacting livelihoods and food production.

Unfortunately, world leaders have yet to agree on an international, legal binding treaty on plastic pollution.

The most recent UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) talks which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, aimed to do just that. The INC 5.2 meeting held in Geneva followed the INC 5 meeting held in Busan, South Korea in December 2024, both ending without a resolution. Countries will now go to a third INC 5 meeting in hopes of finally concluding a treaty.

These meetings, however, have provided graduate student Paige Wise with an extraordinary research opportunity: the chance to interview the different actors at the negotiations, such as government officials, scientists, industry leaders, and NGOs about their perspectives.

“These were two of the most impactful experiences as a grad student. I witnessed how international policy actually works, on the ground, with all its complexities and compromises and extreme tensions in the global political landscape,” says Wise, a graduate student in the Institute for Management & Innovation’s Master of Science in Sustainability Management Program (MScSM).

Wise’s findings will inform her own final research paper, and also contribute to UTM Professor Laurel Besco’s latest SSHRC-funded research on plastics pollution.

Professor Besco, who is cross-appointed between the Department of Geography, Geomatics & Environment and the Institute for Management & Innovation, is exploring innovative law and policy solutions to engender concrete actionon reducing plastic pollution. She focuses on the different ways which industry and government decision-makers view approaches to plastic pollution, specifically in terms of industry norm creation, hoping to contribute towards meaningful solutions that can draw together varied perspectives and tackle this multifaceted and pressing challenge.

One focus of Besco’s research is in looking at different types of government interventions (e.g. bans on single-use plastics like straws and cutlery or deposit-return systems), how effective they have been at changing industry and consumer behaviour, and what lessons can be drawn for designing and implementing future interventions.

Besco hopes her findings will inform policy as well as provide practical recommendations to help industries and government work together towards a solution to plastics pollution.

Besco is also seeking to understand the perspectives of the different actors involved in the international plastics treaty negotiations, including how they view solutions, what, from their perspective, a successful treaty would look like, and how they see their role in implementing a treaty.

“I’m interested in their views to try and understand how we move forward with positive progress, the different perspectives that play into this, and where we can find synergies and ways to move forward,” Besco says.

Wise says her time at the talks in Busan and Geneva shed some light on these different perspectives, and she now has a deeper understanding of the complexities of global environmental governance.

“There’s a balancing of different international priorities, economic realities, and levels of capacity nationally,” she says. “This experience changed how I think about implementing solutions on a global scale, because it’s so different at varying levels around the world.”

Besco says she hopes her research will make an impact on curbing plastics pollution, but that it also serves as an important opportunity to give students like Wise these real-world opportunities as much as possible.

Besco adds that these types of experiences also help students understand what roles they can play in helping solve world problems through research, introduces them to potential career options they may not have otherwise considered, and equips them with practical skills.

“Through this process, Paige is not only learning to do different types of research such as interviews – she’s also learning how to speak with people from around the world and how to interact with other youth, NGOs, and government officials,” Besco says. “This opportunity has given her real-world communication skills and exposed her to potential career paths that she wouldn’t necessarily think about while sitting in a classroom.”

Wise aspires to turn her findings into insights that will be useful for academic and policy audiences. Her long-term goal is to create policy briefs or summaries that will inform decision makers – including those from underrepresented countries that might not have access to many resources – to support more inclusive and evidence-based participation in future negotiations and multilateral environmental agreements.

She also hopes to share what she has learned with other researchers and students interested in engaging in multilateral environmental agreements.

“If we want more effective treaties, we need people who understand the process and are equipped to really contribute meaningfully,” Wise says.

-30-

To learn more about how to get involved with youth at INC:

Check out the Youth Plastic Action Network (YPAN) and read more at www.iisd.org/articles/insight/heres-what-young-people-are-looking-inc-52-talks-plastic-pollution

Paige also attended INC-5; learn more about her experience at www.iisd.org/articles/success-story/three-young-canadians-building-sustainable-future