This week, as the world’s leaders gathered in Paris to discuss and tackle
climate change, the impact of global warming on the fashion industry should
not be underestimated.
In numbers, the apparel industry accounts for 10 percent of global carbon
emissions, with more than 150 billion garments produced every year, according to
Zady, a fashion website that seeks to encourage consumers to buy fewer,
higher-quality garments produced in a more sustainable way.
The world’s resources cannot keep up with the increasing demand for
throw-away fashion. Cotton, for example, the largest single source of fibre
for global apparel, is responsible for 2.6 percent of the global water
use. However, a gap already exists between water supply and demand. If we
do nothing to correct this imbalance, by 2030 demand for water will exceed
supply by 40 percent.
That is why the chief executives of seven top clothing companies, including
Hennes & Mauritz and Gap, are calling on governments to agree a strong
climate change deal, saying they fear global warming will drive up their
costs.
“We come together to acknowledge that climate change is harming the world
in which we operate,” read the joint declaration, also signed by heads of
Levi Strauss, Timberland-owner VF Corp, Eileen Fisher and Burton Snowboards.
“Climate change mitigation and technological innovation are vital to the
health and well-being of those who make and use our products, as well as to
the future supply of materials needed to make those materials,” they added.
The seven companies are among the world’s top users of cotton and the
executives said they were concerned climate warming could drive up costs by
harming cotton production.
Faced with criticism the fashion industry helps fuel a wasteful throwaway
culture, companies such as H&M and adidas have been trying to improve their
environmental credentials by launching products made from recycled
materials. What they don’t tell us, is that it takes about 20,000 litres of
water to make a single T-shirt and a pair of jeans, and there is nothing
sustainable about these measures.
The seven executives said they hoped the Paris Global Summit deal would
ensure net zero greenhouse gas emissions well before the end of the century
as well as include assurances that national climate commitments are
strengthened every five years, starting in 2020.
The declaration included no new commitments from the companies themselves
on how they plan to help reach those aims, noted WGSN.