Blah Blah report on textile emissions released
Published on : Tuesday 09-11-2021
Textile and Apparel Sector Emission Expected to Reach 9.5 percent of Global Emissions by 2030, from Current Level of 7.2 percent
November 2021 – Even if leading players meet their climate commitments, textile and apparel sectoral emissions from production are quite likely to increase in this decade. The manufacturing and sale of textile goods and clothing, generate 2.5 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually. This represents 7.25% of total man-made emissions presently and is expected to reach 9.5% by 2030.
These findings are presented in the Briefing of the Textile and Apparel Sector by cKinetics, which aims to identify solutions to reduce emissions. The study provides a framework to analyse the entire production value chain and brings granularity on the key levers to move.
Increasing consumer demand for textile goods and clothing; as well as increasing use of polyester are the factors contributing most to the increase.
"This is an important sector that is intertwined with everyone's daily lives and its value chain employs over 400 million people globally," commented Rekha Rawat, Associate Director of the Sustainable Industries practice at cKinetics, "And the sector's highest impact is concentrated in emerging economies. Hence there are several interlinked components".
The briefing finds that 165 companies across the globe and across the production value-chain (from fibre all the way to product) generate and influence 608 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions (or about 24% of the sector's emissions).
In the last few years, 56 of the companies have set climate goals and shared details on them. However, these goals are not sufficient as per the analysis and more companies would have to step up.
Global GHG emissions level increased by 26 % in the last decade whereas the GHG emissions level due to textile sector increase by 42% in the last decade.
In the upcoming 'decisive' decade of the climate change fight, the global emissions are expected to increase by 5% while the emissions due to textile sector are expected to increase by 30% during the same time period.
Textile and Apparel sector contributed to 5.23% of total global GHG emissions in 2010 which increased to 7.25% in 2020; and is expected to reach 9.5% by 2030.
The title of the report was inspired by Greta Thunberg's address at the Youth4Climate in Sep 2021. Her message was that there has been lots of talk (blah blah blah) and little action.
The briefing is based on the analysis of commitments (talk) of several hundred players in the textile and apparel sector. And tracks the impact, assuming they get converted to action
The briefing outlines 6 levers that leaders in the sectors can take advantage of in the near term to bring emissions under control.
Learn more about the Blah Blah briefing: https://www.cKinetics.com/climate/TextileSectorBlahBlah/
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)