The Sustainable Fashion Academy (SFA) and Swedish Textile Initiative for Climate Action (STICA) have called for further legislative action to fully decarbonise the textiles-apparel-fashion industry.
- The call has been underlined in a position paper released by SFA and STICA.
The Overall Assessment: Based on the work and analysis till date, SFA and STICA concluded that no matter how ambitious companies are with regard to climate action, without substantial changes in legislation, serious financial investment and rapid innovation, the pace of greenhouse gas reductions for companies and the industry overall will be too slow, and most likely, insignificant.
- To halve emissions in upstream production by 2030, the industry will need to decarbonise every stage of the process. Achieving a carbon neutral apparel and textiles industry will be dependent on robust and efficient climate legislation.
Action in Europe: SFA and STICA are calling for more stringent climate action to be considered in the 'EP INI report on the EU Textile Strategy'. Specifically, they are asking for:
- Adopting stronger climate policy (targets) requiring companies to reduce emissions aligned with science;
- Adopting economic incentives to make the needed transition economically viable for brands, retailers and manufacturers in the supply chain;
- Providing public finance to support the transition and bridge the ‘finance gap’, especially for SMEs.
On the EU proposal for Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, SFA and STICA are calling for more stringent climate action to be considered in the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. They are asking for:
- Introducing an intermediate emissions reduction target of 55% by 2030 (compared with 1990 levels) as mandatory in the Climate Action Plan foreseen in Article 15 and in line with European Climate Law;
- Clarifying that the Climate Action Plan must include companies’ value chain and therefore covers Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions;
- Extending the scope of this obligation and require all large, small and medium-sized companies to adopt a Climate Action Plan;
- Including the Paris Agreement in the list of Conventions in Annex 2, in order to extend the due diligence obligations to climate adverse impacts, while excluding SMEs from the civil liability regime of climate due diligence.
