Fashion Industry Invites Governments to Collaborate on Climate Action
9 December 2019 - The call for collaboration below was released by the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action today in Madrid at COP25. Smart Freight Centre is proud to be moderating together with BSR, the Fashion Charter Logistics Working Group, to help fashion companies realize 30% emissions reduction by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050. Logistics is fair and square part of this commitment! Collaboration between business and government is key.
Our commitment
We, the fashion company signatories of the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, share a fundamental commitment to drive the fashion industry to net-zero emissions in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement no later than 2050.
The Fashion Industry recognizes that current solutions and business models will be insufficient to deliver on the climate agenda and that the Fashion Industry needs to embrace a deeper, more systemic change and bring to scale low-carbon solutions.
We reaffirm our strong commitment under the Charter:
- To set and meet internal targets on renewable energy and energy efficiency in line with the Paris Agreement and rapidly scale up energy efficiency and emission reduction programmes;
- To work collaboratively with policymakers to identify and implement low-carbon solutions;
- To support our supply chains to gradually phase out new coal-fired boilers or other sources of coal-fired heat and power generation, on sites within Tier one and Tier two, latest by 2025;
- To work collaboratively to develop emission-reduction pathways, work programmes, and tools necessary to achieve our emission reduction targets;
- To invest in sustainable production and related technologies.
Our request to governments
- Recognizing, that nearly all major fashion producing, and consuming countries have signed the Paris Agreement;
- Recognizing also, that political support in these countries, in the form of enabling conditions is needed to achieve effective, just and sustainable climate solutions;
- We, the fashion company signatories to the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, ask the political leaders of countries with major fashion production and consumer markets to partner with us to bring the industry in line with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting average global temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius:
- Providing businesses and financial institutions with predictable, transparent and motivating planning contexts for renewable energy investment, for example by ensuring government energy roadmaps are clearly communicated;
- Responding to the urgent need for rapid scale-up of grid-connected renewable energy sources, and the swift phase-out of the highest-emitting fossil-fuel-based sources of energy, while ensuring a just and sustainable transition;
- Providing incentives for a swift transition to renewable energy, for example through the provision of feed-in tariffs to manufacturers and suppliers that generate electricity from renewable sources, and which can feed their excess electricity into the public electricity grid;
- Ensuring credible and legally recognized renewable electricity tariffs and power purchase agreements are available for fashion brands and manufacturers to purchase as part of reducing their greenhouse gas emissions;
- Creating an enabling environment for the rapid phase-out of non-renewable energy sources for all non-grid or high heat processes, for example through research and incentives for alternative biomass sources;
- Working with the Fashion Industry to understand and address potential barriers to sector transformation and uptake of energy efficiency and renewable energy technology, with a focus on understanding the key role of tariffs, subsidies or legal barriers at a national or state level.
Read the full communique, including the 110+ signatories, here.