Apparel sector must double progress to meet 2030 goals

Apparel non-profit Global Fashion Agenda has released a new report – GFA Monitor – with the aim of guiding the sector towards being net climate positive. The research has found, however, that less than eight years from the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals, based on current progress the fashion industry will be responsible for twice the emissions permitted to be within the Paris agreement’s global warming pathways towards net zero by 2050. 

The report calls for new bold alliances to redesign the fashion system and establish pervasive change, and presents guidance based around five pillars: respectful and secure work environments, better wage systems, circular systems, resource stewardship and smart material choices. 

According to the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative, $16tn of assets have already been committed towards achieving net zero emissions by 2050 or before. The initiative was launched in 2020 with the aim of helping asset managers to reach net zero by 2050 and keep global warming within 1.5C. It’s been signed by 273 companies now, with notable names including AXA Investment Managers, Aviva Investors and Columbia Threadneedle. 

Signatories must set interim targets for 2030, with an ongoing review process so that the proportion of assets aligned to net zero is continually increased towards 100%. $42tn of assets have targets set so far at 83 investors, with 39% of those at a net-zero 2050 commitment at this stage. This is a 4% increase since targets were first announced at COP26 in Glasgow last November. 

Energy ministers from the G7 group of nations have agreed a new set of proposals, at a summit in Berlin, that should deliver a decarbonised electricity mix by 2035. Notably, Japan has agreed to end subsidies for overseas fossil fuel projects meaning that all of the G7 now has made this pledge. 

There was some disappointment at the watering down of language in the ministerial communique, which had been due to talk of fossil fuel free electricity networks by 2030 but which ended up with only pledging for predominantly carbon neutral networks. COPY26 president Alok Sharma said that the commitments reaffirm those made in the Glasgow Climate Pact in late 2021. 

As part of the Word Environment Day celebrations in Stockholm, Everland launched the Forest Plan. This is an ambitious framework brought together in response to the Declaration on Forests and Land Use at COP26, and involves a rapid growth in REDD+ projects around the world to turn the tide on deforestation. 

The plan outlines the development of up to 75 new community-based REDD+ projects in threatened forest landscapes, with up to $2bn of commitments generating up to 800m tonnes of verified emissions reductions by 2030. If this level of ambition is matched by others in the project-based REDD+ sector then Everland estimates that this alone can save around 17% of all projected deforestation in key forest nations around the world.