Stand.earth applauds UN Fashion Charter members for urging countries to invest in renewables and for commitment to act, encourages rest of industry to follow

Fashion industry as a whole must scale up investments in renewable energy throughout global supply chains, transition off coal

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Stand.earth

Dec 09, 2019, 11:51 ET

MADRID, Dec. 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A delegation from the UN Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action launched a public communique to energy ministers in fashion-producing nations on December 9 during a side event at COP25, urging countries to do more to promote renewable energy and remove obstacles such as fossil fuel subsidies.

The communique focuses on incentivizing renewable energy installations at manufacturing facilities in nations producing the majority of the fashion industry's products — including China, Turkey, Vietnam, and Bangladesh, which are all considering significant coal expansion.

Stand.earth is an international environmental organization that was instrumental in pushing Levi's to make its groundbreaking climate commitment in 2018. Stand.earth's Filthy Fashion scorecard ranks the climate commitments of 45 top fashion companies, showing how nearly all pledges fail to reach the level of emissions reduction needed to align with the UN Paris Agreement's pathway to 1.5°C degrees of warming and avert the worst consequences of climate change.

In response to today's announcement, Stand.earth said the communique was on the right track, and urged more fashion companies to follow suit with meaningful climate action.

"We applaud the UN fashion charter's work to incentivize renewable energy in nations where coal-fired power is the standard method of powering mills and factories. We hope to see its signatories get to work right away in transitioning their global supply chains off dirty fossil fuels," said Liz McDowell, Filthy Fashion Campaign Director at Stand.earth.

"The fashion industry is moving in the right direction to reverse its massive climate pollution, and we look forward to learning which brands step up to develop specific targets and action plans to keep warming below 1.5°C," said Maya Rommwatt, Climate Campaigner at Stand.earth. "As the world's fourth largest polluter on the planet, the fashion industry has an enormous responsibility to clean up its emissions. Right now, a number of brands including Disney, Primark, Louis Vuitton, Macy's, and Nordstrom – and even 'green' brands like REI and LL Bean – are completely failing to take any meaningful climate action in their supply chains."

SOURCE Stand.earth