Policymakers, industry representatives and associations, civil society, youth and academics assembled in Brussels on 16 May to reflect on how to shift the textile sector towards sustainability and circularity.
The event co-hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) heard perspectives from across the textile value chain on the systemic changes needed to tackle the industry’s significant environmental footprint.
Every year, the textiles sector emits 2 to 8 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases, uses the equivalent of 86 million Olympic-sized swimming pools of natural water resources, and is responsible for 9 per cent of the microplastic pollution in oceans.
Following an introduction by UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen, Veronika Hunt Šafránková, Head of UNEP Brussels Office reiterated the need for the sector to become more sustainable.
“For people struggling to make ends meet, the affordability of textiles is a blessing.” Šafránková said. “But the throwaway models are not in anyone’s best interests. They are a clear driver of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.”
“What we need is nothing short of a paradigm shift towards a circular and just textile economy,” said Zakia Khattabi, Belgium Minister of Climate, the Environment, Sustainable Development and the Green Deal. “This is not a question of choosing between the economy and the environment. Rather, it is about fostering an economy that is resilient, equitable and in harmony with both people and the planet, where no one is left behind.”
The textile sector creates livelihoods and opportunities for millions of workers, generating US$1.5 trillion in revenue while providing products essential to human welfare. At the same time, the sector struggles to address its impacts on the environment, women, vulnerable workers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Policy priorities and needs
A panel featuring representatives of countries, industry and SMEs reflected on the priorities and needs that policies at the European Union and global levels can help address. Participants looked at the impacts of the production of raw materials for textiles and garments, and how to shift patterns of excess consumption, while ensuring livelihoods of those involved throughout the global value chain are considered.
European Union regulations on waste shipments and textiles will be more effective if they are supported by capacity-building measures for producers in major European Union textile trading partners such as India, panelists said. This is especially true for small-scale producers who in practical terms follow most of the sustainable methods of production, but may find the norms for traceability reporting onerous.
Panelists also highlighted the need for better information sharing, global traceability of products, and collective action to tackle microplastics, whilt the private sector demanded clear rules that everybody must follow.
UNEP's report on sustainability and circularity in the textile value chain provides actionable steps for stakeholders, including policymakers, to achieve priorities such as eliminating hazardous chemicals, ending overproduction and overconsumption and promoting circular business models.
Global policy coherence
The event recognized that tackling the challenges of the textile value chain requires a systems-level approach. It emphasized the sector’s importance in implementing several multilateral environmental agreements. These include the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the Kunming-Montreal Global Diversity Framework, the Global Framework on Chemicals, the Paris Agreement and the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution.
The European Union is a frontrunner on sustainable textile policies and legislative proposals, the implementation of which will involve production countries across the value chain, particularly developing countries. The EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles outlines the need for sustainable production and consumption of textiles, calling for all textile products sold in the EU market to be designed, produced, used and repurposed to be circular by 2030.
The event highlighted how global collaboration will be crucial, given the sector’s complexity. Discussions centered around the need for an unprecedented level of policy coherence and coordination across countries and between stakeholders, as well as the need to support female and vulnerable workers impacted by other countries’ policies.
“UNEP is working to build this coordination,” said Šafránková. “We are ready to use our convening power to support a government-led and inclusive policy dialogue to scale-up action to make the textile sector more sustainable.”
Youth demand textile transition
A youth forum on sustainable fashion consumption closed the event. The forum showcased young people’s power as consumers and amplified their demands for change, and for social values to be redefined.
The youth forum also offered insights on how to reshape the current and future fashion industry towards sustainability. Participants delved into policy solutions at a panel featuring youth representatives from the industry, including a former model and responsible fashion expert, a young entrepreneur designer, a marketing specialist, and a material fibers public affairs expert, along with representatives from the European Commission and academia.
The panel affirmed the role and power of youth as outspoken agents of change. It highlighted the need for the narrative to shift to achieve a circular textiles industry. Beyond a focus on eco-design and reparability of the clothes, addressing overconsumption and overproduction of textiles, more collaboration between the textiles industry and emerging creators, were considered of key importance towards a systemic transformation in the sector.
For further information on UNEP’s textile work, please contact Bettina Heller, bettina.heller@un.org.
UNEP has identified textiles as a high-impact sector, not only due to its significant environmental and social impacts but because it exemplifies challenges for many sectors on supply chain visibility, overconsumption and overproduction, and circularity. The One UNEP Textile Initiative provides strategic leadership and encourages sector-wide collaboration to accelerate a just transition towards a sustainable and circular textile value chain. It has outlined the imperative for the fashion sector to become radically and rapidly transformed to become circular and encapsulates and aligns all UNEP work on textiles to do so.
