Four Asian nations have launched a joint $43-million programme to manage and reduce hazardous chemicals in their textile industries.
The four countries are: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam.
- The project will be led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), with the financial backing of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the support of the Basel & Stockholm Convention Regional Centre South-East Asia, and the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC).
- The 'Reducing uses and releases of chemicals of concern in the textiles sector' programme will provide technical support and tools for SMEs and manufacturers to improve their knowledge and management of hazardous chemicals, guiding them to manage risks to workers, and eventually eliminate the worst chemicals from their production processes.
The Chemicals Context: Employing over 10 million people, the four nations’ textile sectors account for near 15% of global clothing exports.
- However, the economic benefits of the industry come at a cost, with the sector being one of the world’s major users of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a family of approximately 12,000 synthetic chemicals which do not break down and accumulate in the environment, threatening human and ecosystem health.
- Wet processing factories, where materials are turned into fabrics through bleaching, printing, dyeing, finishing and laundering typically use 0.58 kg of chemical inputs for every 1 kg of fabric produced.
- These compounds leak into the environment at all phases of the textile lifecycle, from production to use, disposal and recycling.
The Work: The five-year programme will bring the four countries together to align public policy on the textile sector with international best practice, including on supply chain transparency, investment for chemical management and eco-innovation, and occupational health and safety, creating the enabling environment needed to phase out PFAS and other chemicals of concern.
The Funding: The GEF is the world’s largest funder of biodiversity protection, nature restoration, climate change response, and pollution reduction in developing countries.
- It finances international environmental conventions and country-driven initiatives that generate global benefits.
- The GEF partnership connects 184 member governments with civil society, Indigenous Peoples, and the private sector, and works closely with other environmental financiers for efficiency and impact.
- To date, the GEF has provided more than $22 billion in grants and blended finance and mobilised another $120 billion in co-financing for more than 5,000 national and regional projects, plus 27,000 community ventures through its Small Grants Programme.
