Over the past year, we’ve been exploring what it would truly mean for global governance to take seriously the interests of the more-than-human world — a concept we call planetary diplomacy. Along the way, we’ve connected with many individuals and organizations who are also working to push diplomacy in new directions, and to bring overlooked voices into global environmental discussions. One of these is Maria Ivanova, an expert in international environmental governance, sustainability, and the science-policy interface, and Director of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University in Boston, where she also co-directs the university’s Plastics Center. Maria has spent her career at the intersection of ideas and international institutions, having served on the UN Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board and as a member Rwanda’s delegation to the UN Environment Assembly. Her connection to Switzerland runs deep: from convening a forum with all UNEP Executive Directors in Glion in 2009, to developing the Environmental Conventions Index with Swiss government support, to leading academic delegations to last year’s negotiations toward a global plastics treaty in Geneva.
We sat down with her to discuss her work at the Plastics Center, how universities and the arts can shape policy, and Switzerland’s distinctive role in multilateral environmental governance.
