Selin Co-Authors Article on Chemical & Waste Policy
Henrik Selin, Associate Professor of International Relations and Associate Dean for Studies at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, co-authored an article in Science (Vol 371, Issue 6531) analyzing the global science policy landscape and assessing the need for additional governance.
With the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) soon meeting to discuss ways to strengthen the science-policy interface on chemicals and waste, the article, titled “We need a global science-policy body on chemicals and waste,” identifies major gaps in the science-policy interface in international chemicals and waste governance and offers recommendations for establishing an overarching body on chemicals and waste.
As the authors argue:
Not only can the overarching interface body on chemicals and waste learn from existing interface bodies, but it also may collaborate with them to conduct assessments that address multiple environmental and societal concerns in a synergistic manner. Setting up an overarching science-policy interface body on chemicals and waste will not solve all governance problems (e.g., a lack of effective national implementation and enforcement). However, it is a critical and necessary step toward strengthening informed policy-making for achieving the global sound management of chemicals and waste.
The full article can be read online.
Henrik Selin has been at Boston University since 2004 and his research and teaching focuses on global and regional politics and policy making on environment and sustainable development. He is the author of EU and Environmental Governance and Global Governance of Hazardous Chemicals: Challenges of Multilevel Management. He is also the author and co-author of more than four dozen peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He also serves as Associate Editor for the journal Global Environmental Politics. Learn more about Professor Selin on his faculty profile.