WASHINGTON (December 2, 2024) – Talks on a landmark treaty aimed at reducing plastic pollution broke down today after delegates from more than 170 countries couldn’t agree on a path forward, The Washington Post reports. Negotiators couldn’t agree on how to curb the world’s growing mountain of plastic waste.
Faculty experts at the George Washington University are available to offer insight, analysis and commentary. To speak with an expert, please contact GW Media Relations at [email protected].
Nina Kelsey is an assistant professor of public policy and international affairs. Her research examines the role of interests in environmental policy making and negotiation. In particular, she focuses on how changes to interests can occur over time, especially via feedback, and how these changes shape environmental policy making at international, national, and subnational levels.
Mary Coughlin is an associate professor of museum studies at the George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts & Design. Coughlin has an interest in the conservation challenges of contemporary museum collections, particularly with respect to plastic. Before coming to GW full time, she worked for five years in the Objects Conservation Laboratory of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Coughlin is writing a book, Caring for Plastics in Collections, that focuses on how preventive conservation and collections management decisions can impact plastics in museums.
Jordan Kuiper, is an environmental and prenatal, perinatal and pediatric epidemiologist at the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health who can discuss plastic pollution.
-GW-