Towards a global plastics treaty: emerging questions of human rights and global ethics in the Net Zero transition
DateWednesday 13 November 2024
Time17:30
LocationKellogg College Hub
The second of our annual Human Rights Lectures.
Ahead of the final round of negotiations in Busan on an international legally binding treaty on plastic pollution, what are the key human rights issues of the plastics crisis? This lecture will review questions of human rights and global ethics including around pollution, health, affected populations and the polluter pays principle emerging in the negotiations. These questions tie in to a wider set of issues associated with the accelerating Net Zero pivot, for example the shift away from fossil fuels to minerals-intensive clean energy, climate finance, and the evolving concept of a just transition. Taken together, they may, it is suggested, impact the direction of human rights itself in the coming decades.
Joshua Lincoln (PhD) is currently a Senior Fellow with the Center for International Law and Governance (CILG) at the Fletcher School of global affairs, Tufts University, where he focuses on global governance, sustainability and the Net Zero transition. Drawing on twenty-five years of experience across four continents, he is an advisor to heads of government and organizations, sits on the board of directors of the Global Governance Forum and the advisory board of the Cambrian Futures Group, and is a member of the New Carbon Economy Consortium.
At CILG, Joshua is pursuing several research and writing projects on pluralism in multilateralism, global governance, sustainability and the Net Zero transition. He is co-investigator with Ian Johnstone of a project on the 2022-2025 intergovernmental negotiations for a global plastics treaty. He is also researching the governance implications of the global decarbonization shift for a book project under a small grant from the Global Challenges Foundation and works more generally on multilateralism, geopolitics, and treaty-making in the context of the Net Zero transition.
His recent publications include “Carbon, Confusion and Conflict – Global Governance Implications of the Net-Zero Energy Transition,” in Global Governance and International Cooperation – Managing Global Catastrophic Risks in the 21st Century, Eds Richard Falk, Augusto Lopez-Claros (Routledge, 2024), ‘Abdu’l-Bahā ‘Abbās, A Life in Social and Regional Context (Idra, 2023); and “Global Governance in an Era of Pluralism,” Global Policy, Vol 13 no 4 (2022). He also writes periodically for World Politics Review.
From 2013 to 2019 he served as Secretary-General of the Bahá’í International Community. Based at the Bahá’í World Centre, he represented the international governing council of the Bahá’í community in its external affairs. Between 2000 and 2013, he worked at the United Nations, including as Chief of Staff to the Director-General of the UN Office at Geneva and as Senior Officer in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General in New York. He also worked for eight years in mediation and preventive diplomacy with the UN Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission and in UN peacekeeping and peacemaking field missions in Ethiopia/Eritrea and North/South Sudan. Earlier, as an academic/policy researcher, he carried out projects for universities, think tanks and institutions including the World Bank. He holds a BSFS from Georgetown University in International Politics, and both a MALD and a PhD in International Relations from Tufts University.
Professor Nazila Ghanea will chair the event.
This event is open to the public.
If you wish to attend in person please book here.
Human Rights Lecture Tickets, Wed 13 Nov 2024 at 17:30 | Eventbrite
If you wish to attend online please use the link below:
Human Rights Lecture Tickets, Wed 13 Nov 2024 at 17:30 | Eventbrite
Refreshments will be served from 5 pm; the lecture will begin at 5.30 pm. Post-event drinks will be served in the Hub from 6.30 pm.
This event will be photographed and filmed. If you do not wish to appear in the photographs/footage, please let the photographer/videographer know.
Should you have any further queries, or be unable to attend after booking, please contact events@kellogg.ox.ac.uk
Open to: the public,