With the help of the United Nations, the world’s $2.5 trillion fashion industry is shifting to more sustainable business models which can help fight climate change and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The fashion industry, including the production of all clothes which people wear, contributes to around 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions due to its long supply chains and energy intensive production.  The industry consumes more energy than the aviation and shipping industry combined.

Shifting practices in the fashion industry to reduce carbon emissions is key to limiting warming to as close to 1.5°C above pre-Industrial Revolution levels, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

In addition to its carbon intensive supply chain and production processes, the fashion industry consumes a great deal of other precious resources.

To make just one pair of denim jeans, 10,000 liters of water is required to just grow the one kilo of cotton needed for the pair of jeans. In comparison, one person would take 10 years to drink 10,000 liters of water.

Cumulatively, the fashion industry produces about 20% of global waste water. Furthermore, 85% of textiles end up in landfills or are incinerated when most of these materials could be reused.

One good example of how ambition to tackle climate change is growing in the fashion industry is collaborative initiative called the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, co-sponsored by 10 UN organisations including UN Climate Change.

To help build awareness around fashion’s impact on the environment, UN Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador Michelle Yeoh explains the use of forest-based materials for sustainable fashion in this video “Made in Forests”.

UN Climate Change encourages sustainable fashion through its Climate Neutral Now (CNN) campaign which connects organisations that want to offset carbon emission with investments in carbon emissions reductions across the developing world.

Lindita Xhaferi-Salihu, who works for Climate Neutral Now, described CNN’s involvement with sustainable fashion as “kick-starting a multi-stakeholder initiative to mobilise fashion around climate action through three work streams: enabling “within sector” collaboration; facilitating engagement with policymakers; and catalysing action and providing recognition.”

At last year’s (2017) major UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, the fashion industry outlined which steps it is taking to support the goals of the Paris Climate Change agreement.

For example, the fast fashion retailer H&M shared their strategy to be 100% run on renewable energy by 2040 with a fully circular production model, where the by-product of one industry serves the objective of another.

Other Inspiring Examples of Climate Action in the Fashion Industry

The 2018 Pulse of the Fashion Industry Report also contains positive news. There was a 6% increase in general sustainability efforts across the entire garment industry since last year’s report. The weakest points in the industry are small and medium sized enterprises in the entry- to mid-price segments which comprise just over 50% of the entire industry, pointing to issues of scale in implementing general sustainability measures.

However, new data presented in the 2017 report shows that a failure to implement sustainability measures into garment production will cause companies to lose out on a 2% increase in earnings by 2030.

Additionally, the famous blue jean manufacturer Levi, Strauss & Co has announced a new climate change action plan. Using Science Based Targets, the company plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% across its global supply chain by 2025. The plan also includes a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in all owned-and-operated facilities, which will be achieved by investing in onsite renewable energy and energy efficiency upgrades.

In the light of her limited adaptive capabilities to deal with the consequences of climate change, Nigeria has been called upon to adopt collective actions to address the climate threats to human, business and ecosystems.

Executive Director, Centre for Investment, Sustainable Development, Management and Environment (CISME), Prince Lekan Fadina, who made the submission in Lagos on Monday, July 9, 2018 at the beginning of a two-day workshop for the review of the Draft Third National Communication (TNC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), stated that such action should entail a collaboration involving the public and private sectors.

In a presentation titled: “Public Private Partnership for Climate Action in Nigeria”, Prince Fadina, while making a case for the role of the private sector, pointed out that the private sector accounts for 70% of all investments worldwide, even as 90% of people in developing countries depend on private sector, informal sector and small business.

“Adapting to the impacts of climate change is enormous challenge, and there is increasing number of private sector companies worldwide that are beginning to address climate change in their investments and business planning. They are turning the challenges to opportunities – green jobs, alternative energy, sustainable investments and low carbon industries,” said Fadina.

According to him, the global debate on climate finance has increasingly focused on the potential of the private sector to contribute to and/or leverage climate finance.

“At the outset discussion on the role of the private sector in finance was focused on mitigation to reduce the level of green house gases emission. Today, the private sector is increasingly relevant about the global adaptation debate,” he stated.

Fadina stressed that public and private sector organisations must see each other as partners in development, saying that there is need for trust, mutual confidence, understanding and appreciating each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

“We must strive for common vision and common objectives because the end-result is the prosperity of the Nigeria People,” he stressed, adding however that, to thrive and make sustainable investments, the private sector requires the existence of appropriate policy framework and an enabling environment.

While strengthening the partnership between government and business, and encouraging international co-operation on monitoring climate risks, Fadina recommended that national programmmes that entail investing in social preparedness measures, tackling inequality, bolstering IT infrastructure, education and innovation should be put in place.

His words: “The Continental Trade Treaty Agreement is in our doorsteps which makes Africa one market; our government and private sector should start to address the implications of this in our climate challenge and opportunities programmes.

“We believe that climate problem is real and all of us must act to respond, and we equally believe that the private sector can make a substantial contribution. It can help to solve but cannot solve all the problems, but it can make enough of a contribution that its worth pursuing.

“There is a need to set up a platform like the Talanoa Dialogue where government and private sector can have opportunities to share experience on climate issues and development. We should encourage participation and investment through public-private partnership in education, building capacity, creating awareness, invest in knowledge and research.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will meet in Incheon, Republic of Korea, from October 1 to 5, 2018 to consider the Special Report “Global Warming of 1.5ºC”. Subject to approval, the Summary for Policymakers will be released on Monday, October 8 with a live-streamed press conference that will be addressed by the IPCC Chair and Co-Chairs from the three IPCC Working Groups.

The opening session of the meeting will include statements by the Chair of the IPCC, senior officials the IPCC’s two parent bodies World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and senior officials of the Republic of Korea.

The report, whose full name is “Global Warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty”, is being prepared under the scientific leadership of all three IPCC Working Groups.

Formally, the meeting will start with the 48th Session of the IPCC. Next, a joint session of the three Working Groups chaired by their Co-Chairs will consider the Summary for Policymakers line by line for approval. Then the 48th Session of the IPCC will resume to accept the Summary for Policymakers and overall report.

The IPCC decided to prepare the report, in response to an invitation from the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties at its 21st meeting in December 2015 when the Paris Agreement was signed.

The IPCC is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the UN Environment and WMO in 1988 to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. It has 195-member states.

IPCC assessments provide governments, at all levels, with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies. IPCC assessments are a key input into the international negotiations to tackle climate change. IPCC reports are drafted and reviewed in several stages, thus guaranteeing objectivity and transparency.

The IPCC assesses the thousands of scientific papers published each year to tell policymakers what we know and don’t know about the risks related to climate change. The IPCC identifies where there is agreement in the scientific community, where there are differences of opinion, and where further research is needed. It does not conduct its own research.

At its 41st Session in February 2015, the IPCC decided to produce a Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). At its 42nd Session in October 2015 it elected a new Bureau that would oversee the work on this report and Special Reports to be produced in the assessment cycle. At its 43rd Session in April 2016, it decided to produce three Special Reports, a Methodology Report and AR6.