In this final episode of Voices in Global Environmental Politics, Hayley Stevenson speaks with Kumi Naidoo, a lifelong activist for social, environmental, and climate justice. Kumi has served as Secretary-General of Amnesty International, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, and is now President of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.

Their conversation reflects on how to turn knowledge into meaningful action—how to choose where and how to work for change, how to sustain activism in the face of systemic failure, and how to balance moral clarity with strategic power. For students and practitioners alike, Kumi offers wisdom on perseverance, purpose, and the long view of social transformation.

Learn more about the ideas discussed in this episode in Global Environmental Politics: Problems, Policy, and Practice (Cambridge University Press).

In this episode, Hayley Stevenson speaks with Professor Julian Agyeman (Tufts University), a leading scholar of environmental and food justice.

Julian’s research has powerfully shown that environmental agendas can reproduce inequality when they overlook the social and economic contexts in which they’re implemented. In this conversation, he explains how movements for local food sustainability in the Global North sometimes unintentionally exclude marginalized groups or harm farmers elsewhere—and how we might do things differently. Together, they discuss what it means to build food systems that are not only sustainable, but also fair and inclusive.

Learn more about the ideas discussed in this episode in Global Environmental Politics: Problems, Policy, and Practice (Cambridge University Press).

In this episode, Hayley Stevenson speaks with Professor Maria Ivanova, Director of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University, and a leading expert on global environmental governance and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Their conversation explores what the turbulent negotiations over a global plastics treaty reveal about the broader state of multilateralism today. As confidence in international cooperation falters, plastics politics have both reflected and challenged these tensions—showing how new coalitions, divides, and institutions are shaping global environmental action.

Learn more about the ideas discussed in this episode in Global Environmental Politics: Problems, Policy, and Practice (Cambridge University Press).