Emily Cowan

Biographic Data

ID6719295
NAMEEmily Cowan
GIVEN NAMESEmily
FAMILY NAMECowan
SIGNATURECOWAN E
AFFILIATIONSSINTEF
ORCID0000-0002-3550-0449
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS13
TOTAL CITATIONS12
AUTHOR COUNT13
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2022
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX3

  • Process without progress

    Open AccessEmily Cowan, Rachel Tiller et al.ARTICLEJournal of Environmental Studies…2026

    The second part of the fifth session of the UN’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2) on plastic pollution was held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva from 5 to 15 August 2025. Despite a sense of urgency, 2,600 participants, including delegations from 183 countries and hundreds of observers, negotiators left Geneva without consensus on a final agreement. Delegates decided to put the negotiations on pause, demonstrating a continued c…

  • Microplastic pollution from fishing gear

    Open AccessDag Standal, Emily CowanARTICLEMarine Policy2026

    During the last decade, measures to reduce pollution from fisheries have become a decisive topic and high on the political agenda. Commercial fisheries are a major source of marine microplastic pollution. Since fishing effort and technology are structured through quota allocation and fleet policy, fisheries management plays a central role in shaping both the scale and distribution of microplastic emissions. Within this governance framework, the d…

  • A marine pollution governance assessment framework - the case of emerging tyre wear particles governance in the European Union

    Open AccessJudith Van Leeuwen, Freddy Van Hulst et al.ARTICLEMarine Policy2026

    Despite global regulatory efforts over the last 50 years, marine pollution remains a persistent challenge. Its transboundary nature requires a multifaceted governance approach that encompasses land-based sectors as well as pathways of pollution from land to sea. Understanding why marine pollution governance struggles to be effective requires examining actor interactions and power dynamics that shape regulatory outcomes. This article therefore dev…

  • Competing axes of power in the global plastics treaty

    Open AccessPeter Dauvergne, Jen Iris Allan et al.ARTICLEMarine Policy2025

    Headlines in December 2024 proclaimed the “collapse” and “failure” of United Nations plastics treaty negotiations in Busan, South Korea. This is, however, an overly simplistic and pessimistic portrayal. Progress on less contentious issues was made, and the meeting was adjourned with a commitment to continue negotiating in 2025 on the basis of the “Chair’s text.” Significantly, at the closing plenary, a majority of states voiced support for a “hig…

  • The Global Plastic Treaty odyssey

    Open AccessEmily Cowan, Emily Christine Cowan et al.ARTICLEOne Earth2025

  • Five’s a crowd

    Open AccessEmily Cowan, Rachel Tiller et al.ARTICLEJournal of Environmental Studies…2025References: 2

    The United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) convened its fifth session of negotiations (INC-5.1) on a new international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution from November 25–December 2, 2024, in Busan, South Korea. Initially anticipated to be the final session of negotiations, INC-5.1 concluded without reaching a consensus, highlighting divides among negotiating state parties. A central point of contention…

  • Event Ethnography to study the global negotiations on the treaty to end plastic pollution

    Open AccessEmily CowanARTICLEJournal of Environmental Studies…2024References: 12

    Plastics and their associated chemical pollution have emerged as a global threat. This recognition materialized in March 2022 with the adoption of a groundbreaking mandate among United Nations (UN) Member States, signaling the commencement of negotiations for a comprehensive treaty aimed at ending plastic pollution, encompassing the entire lifecycle. The first session of negotiations convened at the International Negotiating Committee (INC-1) in …

  • Standoff at the four-way stop sign

    Open AccessRachel Tiller, Emily Cowan et al.ARTICLEJournal of Environmental Studies…2024References: 3

    Within the final session of negotiations inching forward, the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) completed its fourth session of negotiations (out of five) on an international legally binding instrument (ILBI) to “end plastic pollution.” This paper examines the results of the fourth session of negotiations INC-4, which took place from April 23 to 29th, 2024, in Ottawa, Canada. In this perspective paper, we analyze t…

  • It takes two to tango

    Open AccessEmily Cowan, Karl Holmberg et al.ARTICLEJournal of Environmental Studies…2024Cited by: 4References: 3

    The United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) has completed its second round of negotiations on a new international legally binding instrument to ‘end plastic pollution’. This paper examines the results of the second session of negotiations, which took place May 29–June 2, 2023, and analyses the trends, barriers, and themes shaping the emerging legally binding instrument. The paper considers the discussion surrounding the …

  • The Rule of Three

    Open AccessEmily Cowan, Rachel Tiller et al.ARTICLEJournal of Environmental Studies…2024Cited by: 3

  • End of life at the top of the world—stakeholder perspectives for plastics and circular transitions in the Arctic

    Open AccessEmily Cowan, Lacie Setsaas et al.ARTICLEJournal of Environmental Studies…2023References: 2

    Plastic pollution is a growing global concern. Although the pollution itself is transboundary and knows no borders—the accumulation of plastics can have a more detrimental impact depending on where it is. In this study, we focus on the Arctic, an area where fragile ecosystems are increasingly under pressure from human-made products such as plastics. Although plastic pollution takes place on a global scale, it will be up to the regional and local …

  • Oh, We Got Beef

    Leconté J Dill, Shavaun S Sutton et al.ARTICLEDepartures in Critical…2022

    There is a bevy of scholarship that suggests that research can be strengthened through community–academic partnerships and that such partnerships are inherently mutually beneficial. However, there are competing cultures of community-based organizations and academic institutions, oftentimes with different stakes, timelines, constituents, and sites of knowledge making and knowledge production. The COVID-19 pandemic and its “afterlives” made hyper-v…

  • Risk perception and risk realities in forming legally binding agreements

    Open AccessRachel Tiller, Andy M Booth et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Science & Policy2022Cited by: 5References: 10

    The effectiveness of a legally binding treaty to manage plastic pollution will depend on how people perceive the risk of the problem in terms of both whether and how much they fear it. Plastic pollution caught the attention of the global public owing to uncertainty surrounding potential human health impacts. Despite an initial concern about human exposure, especially to microplastics, scientific evidence started emerging that the risks of ingesti…