Climate

The world's cotton importers have shifted towards a single dominant exporter at a time of rising weather risk. Brazil shipped 3.37 million tonnes in 2025/26, far ahead of the United States, and its Centre-West cotton belt is in El Niño's dry zone. Conab and StoneX both expect each hectare of Brazilian cotton to yield less this season.

Fashion's sourcing data and its fibre data are moving in different directions. Companies in Textile Exchange's benchmark raised the share of five fibres sourced through standards and certification programmes to 72% in 2025, while polyester took most of the growth in fibre output in 2024. A cotton shortfall driven by El Niño would show which measure defines progress.

Global cotton supply is projected to fall short of demand independently of El Niño. The USDA's August figures put the gap at about 5.3 million bales, and prices rallied on supply concerns before falling back by about a tenth. For spinners that contracted near the peak, a weather shock later this year would compound an existing loss.

Traditional garments across India carry knowledge of materials, construction, climate and local identity, yet many have not been explored for contemporary markets. The Weavers' Service Centre, Chamoli, has tested one approach with Uttarakhand's Dokha, a heavy woollen winter garment. Its lighter, shorter cotton version has since passed through field training to weavers, and commercial production has begun in Khatima.

Fragmented pilot projects have long defined regenerative agriculture efforts in Pakistan's cotton sector, but mounting climate and market pressures are exposing the limits of that approach. Drawing on a recent industry roundtable, Abou Bakar, Country Representative – Pakistan, CottonConnect, explains what a coordinated national framework would look like, and why farmer incentives and traceability now sit at the centre of that conversation.

A proposed $2 billion carbon-neutral textile city in Egypt's Suez Canal Economic Zone is the largest single expression of a structural shift that has been accumulating since at least 2019. Chinese manufacturers under mounting pressure to demonstrate lower-carbon supply chains have been moving into Egyptian industrial zones in accelerating volume. The announcement makes that movement legible for the first time at scale.

Breakthrough textile materials have received $34 million in new Bezos Earth Fund grants, backing research into bacterial fibres, spider-silk-inspired biodegradable materials, coloured cotton and cotton seedbank restoration. The funding targets materials that can match rayon, silk and cotton while improving cost, performance and environmental outcomes across fashion and textile supply chains.

Organic cotton grown by smallholders in Tanzania under the Cotton made in Africa Organic standard has recorded one of the lowest environmental footprints in global cotton production, new research has confirmed. The findings, drawn from a comprehensive lifecycle analysis, showed that the absence of synthetic pesticides, artificial fertilisers, and irrigation kept emissions well below industry norms.

Climate resilience, productivity and workplace safety are being advanced across Ethiopia's leather, textile and garment sector through a new ILO-Japan joint initiative. The one-year programme targets 40 factories across five cities, integrating Japanese expertise, digitalised safety tools and a women's leadership development programme to drive sustainable and inclusive industrial growth.

H&M Foundation has launched an open-access workshop toolkit enabling brands, suppliers, policymakers and investors to apply its System Map across the textiles industry. Developed with Accenture, the toolkit identifies leverage points to halve greenhouse gas emissions every decade until 2050, while supporting a just transition that avoids shifting costs onto the most vulnerable.