Brazil hosted COP30 in the heart of the Amazon, bringing together signatory countries, companies, institutions, and civil society to negotiate concrete pathways to address the climate crisis. But where does fashion fit into this agenda?
The conference brought back into focus the progress — and the limits — of the climate agenda ten years after the Paris Agreement, the pact that defines targets for emissions reduction, energy transition, and climate finance.
It became clear that decarbonization and the energy transition are not just technical guidelines, but strategic pillars to contain global warming. And that emissions reduction must, inevitably, advance across all sectors of the economy.
Just before COP30, the UN Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action (Fashion Charter) — an international UNFCCC agreement that brings together brands and suppliers to align the sector with the 1.5°C target and push it toward carbon neutrality by 2050, released a public statement signed by more than 70 brands and manufacturers, urging policymakers to accelerate a just transition to renewable energy during the conference.
Therefore, this essay aims to highlight the urgency of this movement within fashion. According to the UN, the sector is responsible for around 10% of global carbon emissions — more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.
FASHION AND CLIMATE ARE NO LONGER PARALLEL UNIVERSES
Before moving forward, it’s worth a quick pause to explain why we talk about decarbonization. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) traps heat in the atmosphere and intensifies global warming. Most of these emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels — the energy base that supports virtually all production chains.
When we understand this, it becomes easier to see how fashion enters the conversation: from fiber production to the transport of garments, everything depends on energy — and much of that energy still emits CO₂ today. To decarbonize is to reduce this impact. From here on, fashion and climate are no longer separate worlds.
THE ENERGY MATRIX OF FASHION
From fiber production to fabric finishing, nearly every stage still runs on coal, gas, or biomass — generating intense emissions and unhealthy industrial heat. The industry’s climate footprint exposes the urgency of rethinking energy matrices and accelerating the shift toward low-emission processes.
This year, Fashion Revolution released the second edition of its report What Fuels Fashion?, which analyzes how transparent brands are about their climate and energy practices, both in their own operations and across the entire supply chain.
Between 200 brands assessed, only 10% disclose renewable electricity targets for their supply chain, and just 6% present broader clean-energy targets. The message is clear: the sector still lacks a consistent public plan to power its production with renewable energy.
The main bottleneck lies in the supply chain. The study shows that publicly listed brands, which respond directly to shareholders, account for 59% of the companies scoring zero on traceability, failing at the most basic level of transparency and revealing a serious accountability gap in ESG criteria.
To complete the picture, by failing to invest in the production base, many brands end up shifting responsibility onto suppliers in emerging countries, where wages are lower and working conditions are often fragile. Only 7% of companies demonstrate political engagement in advocating for improvements in producing countries, and only 2% disclose concrete outcomes from these initiatives.
In addition, only 6% disclose direct investments in grid-scale renewable energy — a clear sign that without pressure and real commitment, the sector’s energy transition does not move forward.
Ten years after the Paris Agreement, the planet has already crossed thresholds that once seemed distant. The global average temperature is flirting with 1.5°C, and each new scientific report reinforces that the window to avoid irreversible damage is rapidly narrowing.
In this context, fashion can no longer stand on the sidelines. It is a global, fast-moving, high-impact industry, and precisely for that reason, it holds enormous transformative power.
Climate targets will not be met without energy-intensive sectors, such as textiles, taking clear, measurable, and public commitments. This means moving beyond “marginal improvements” and advancing toward a structural energy transition, with investment at the base of the supply chain, effective traceability, and science-aligned targets.
And this cannot be solved with sectoral manifestos alone: it depends on concrete incentives from the most financially powerful brands, those moving billions, to unlock public policies, strengthen climate financing, and channel resources to the countries that support global fashion production, such as China, Bangladesh, and Vietnam.
And perhaps this is precisely the essence of the decade following the Paris Agreement: understanding that climate and fashion do not run on parallel tracks. They intersect, influence each other, and define one another.
In the end, it is this fine line that stitches together the Amazon, Paris, and anyone’s closet: realizing that every political, industrial, or creative decision shapes the climate that will affect us in the years to come.
