From the Higgs Boson to UN Plastic Pollution Negotiations

Paola Catapano’s article on Italian magazine SIF Prima Pagina highlights how artificial intelligence techniques, originally developed for Higgs boson data analysis at CERN, are now being employed to accelerate global plastic pollution negotiations spearheaded by the United Nations.

Data analysis techniques based on artificial intelligence, developed at CERN for the search for the Higgs boson, were showcased on August 8 during one of the “side events” of the INC-5.2 committee — the United Nations intergovernmental committee that met at the Palais des Nations in Geneva from 5 to 15 August to work toward a legally binding international instrument on plastic pollution.

Entitled “Citizen Science and AI to Combat Plastic Pollution”, the workshop, hosted at CERN’s IdeaSquare, was organized by the Polarquest.org association in collaboration with the European project Edge SpAIce, and attracted more than 70 INC-5.2 delegates. The program included presentations by experts in AI, citizen science, and marine biology, as well as a guided tour of CERN. Edge SpAIce, an EU-funded project launched in 2024, draws on CERN’s expertise in data management to tackle marine plastic waste, by developing an onboard satellite system capable of acquiring and processing high-resolution images through a deep neural network.

As explained by Sioni Summers, a physicist with the CMS experiment, “the system will process data almost in real time directly on the satellite, emulating the efficient data filtering performed by the particle detectors at the Large Hadron Collider.” The unique combination of artificial intelligence and citizen science promises to make monitoring and enforcement of future directives on sustainable plastic production more efficient and more accessible. Thanks to AI, thousands of images provided by citizens can be analyzed to map pollution in real time, while citizen-driven “ground truthing” will help AI systems learn and improve. “Together,” said Rosy Mondardini, Director of Research at Citizen Science Zurich (University of Zurich and ETH), “they enable faster responses, smarter policies, and greater community involvement in reducing plastic waste.”

Marine biologist Stefano Aliani of the Institute of Marine Sciences at Italy’s National Research Council (CNR), and a member of the International Science Council delegation to the INC-5, drew attention to a petition signed by 450 independent experts from 65 countries, expressing concern that a distorted representation of the science of plastic pollution could lead to a treaty incapable of protecting future generations. To seize this “unique opportunity for the planet,” he said, “we must ensure that science plays a central role.” Unfortunately, the inconclusive outcome of the UN negotiations confirmed Aliani’s warning. A failure symbolized by Benjamin Von Wong’s sculpture on the Place des Nations — a six-meter-tall “Thinker,” inspired by Rodin, suffocated by an ever-growing pile of plastic bottles during the talks.