This project examines how powerful corporate entities respond to a significant threat to business-as-usual: ongoing negotiations for a legally binding global treaty on plastic pollution. Central to this inquiry is our concept of the ‘petrochemical historical bloc’, a coalition of fossil fuel, petrochemical, and consumer goods industries, alongside states with vested interests in maintaining and expanding plastic production (1). While social science research has begun addressing the ‘petrochemical blindspot’ in climate debates (2), limited attention has been paid to the structural power and agency of big-brand corporations (such as Coca-Cola, Unilever and Nestlé) that rely on disposable plastics, or their relationship with upstream industries in shaping the global plastics economy.

Combining interdisciplinary insights from international political economy, economic geography, and critical policy studies, this project investigates the strategies, alliances, and tensions within the petrochemical bloc. Empirically, it builds on ethnographic fieldwork at multiple UN plastic treaty negotiations on corporate positioning and strategy. The ISRF grant will support further research to deepen understanding of corporate influence on global plastics governance. Specifically, the research analyses how corporate actors (re)shape sustainability discourses, such as the circular economy, to simultaneously accommodate and and resist demands for transformative action on plastic waste and toxic pollution while consolidating their positions.

Using interviews and participant observation at future treaty negotiations, the project asks: What strategies and alliances underpin corporate engagement with the treaty? How have different industry positions evolved over the course of negotiations? What is the extent and impact of corporate power on the treaty’s outcome and global plastics governance more broadly? This project advances critical insight into the political economy of plastics, contributing to broader debates on corporate power, accountability, and global sustainability transitions. By leveraging our established networks with environmental NGOs, it also aims to inform ongoing policy efforts to address plastic pollution.