Haganum Model United NationsGymnasium Haganum, The HagueResearch Reports

UNFCCCMeassures to decrease the Greenhouse emission as a result of the fast fashion industry

8th, 9th and 10th of March 2019

Haganum Model United Nations 2019| 8th of March – 10th of March 2019

Forum: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Issue: Meassures to decrease the Greenhouse emission as a result of

the fast fashion industry

Student Officer: Thomas van der Woning

Position: Deputy President of the UNFCCC

Introduction

“The clothing industry is the second largest polluter in the world ... second only to oil,

(...) It's a really nasty business ... it's a mess." said Eileen Fisher, a big clothing industry

magnate, in front of an audience in 2015. Whether it really is true if the clothing industry is

the second largest polluting in the world is not to say with 100% certainty because of the

many different stages of production and consumption like the gaining of raw material, the

manufacturing of textile, the producing of the garment, the shipping, retail, the use of clothing

and eventually the disposal of the produced piece. Yet it does show that the ecological

footprint of the clothing industry is devastating and in need of serious consideration.

Definition of Key Terms

Globalization

The increase of trade around the world, especially by large companies producing and

trading goods in many different countries.

Fashion Industry

The industry that produces clothing for general consumption.

Pollution

Damage caused to water, air, etc. by harmful substances or waste.

Organic

Not using artificial chemicals in the growing of plants for food or other products.

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Background Information

Different pollutants

In the fashion industry there are multiple pollutants, pollutants which are more

common known are the pesticides used on cotton production, the emission with the

production of the garments and the waste of old garments. But there are also pollutants

which are less obvious, such as the emission of the transportation of produced clothes,

because of globalization this is something that is also a frequent and big part of the

production costs for the fashion industry, but also the many natural resources that are

needed for the production. Also a very important part of the ecological footprint is the

massive use of water. For example the necessary use of up to 5,000 gallons of water for the

production of a few t-shirts or some jeans, but also the water needed for the washing of

clothes and the production of cotton are major uses of water. With washing clothes another

problem rirses: if polyester clothes are washed they shed microfibres which then add up to

the plastic level in the oceans in which this washing water is dumped.

Cotton production

Cotton is the most used resource for the production of clothing. Approximately forty

percent of the clothes which are produced are, fully or partly, made of cotton. Cotton is a

natural resource that needs a lot of water to be produced. Cotton is also a resource that is

highly dependent on chemicals, such as pesticides and other agricultural chemicals. The

cotton production is 2,4% of the entire agriculture of the world, but uses ten percent of the

agricultural chemicals and up to twenty-five percent of the insecticides of the entire

agriculture of the world. There is also some research to produce cotton varieties that are

resistant to some herbicides and insects, so they need fewer chemicals. These varieties now

make up twenty percent of all the cotton production. The biggest producers of cotton are

China, India and the USA respectively.

Organic cotton is a more sustainable option for the big cotton pollution, but only one

percent of the cotton production is organic. The organic alternative also has a lot of

downsides. For example organic cotton needs a lot of water and the dyeing and the transport

of the many products still leave a big ecological footprint.

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Use of other fabrics

Other fabrics which are often used, such as nylon and polyester, are neither a very

sustainable option. These fabrics are made by the use of oil and need a big amount of

energy to be created, and some of these fabrics, like nylon, also emit a greenhouse gas,

nitrous oxide, when produced which is even more harmful than carbon dioxide. Apart from

the complications with producing these fabrics, they are also not biodegradable, which

means that they are very unsustainable.

To produce polyester only there are approximately seventy million barrels of oil

necessary. Polyester can also be produced from recycled plastic polymer products such as

old drinking bottles. To produce this, they need only half the energy of what they need to

produce non-recycled polyester, but because they do this mostly in low-labour cost countries,

they still are shipped in and out of the (mainly) East-Asian countries.

Dye

The pollution of the production of the dye needed for our clothes is also highly

alarming. The high pollution in rivers is a big problem in many producing countries, for

example in Indonesia the Citarum River is now considered one of the most polluted rivers of

the world because the hundreds of textile factories which dump their used chemicals in the

river due to a lack of proper infrastructure to dump them somewhere more fitting. Due to this

5 million people and the environment in the vicinity of the river is highly affected.

The wastewater, often not treated to neutralise the chemicals, which comes from

these textile factories are dumped in the rivers and canals next to these factories and

through these water streams they end up in the ocean. When they end up in the ocean they

do not only affect the regional environment, but the environment of the entire world.

According to a research of Yale Environment 360, forty percent the dumping of untreated

wastewater is by factories in China.

Transport

Due to globalization most companies outsource their production to countries with a

low cost of labour such as China, Vietnam and Bangladesh. Because of this the clothing

needs a lot of transport, for example the raw resources that are needed to make the

garments that need to be imported and the eventual products that need to be exported to the

markets where they are sold such as in the USA or the EU. The USA for example only has

two percent domestic made garments, and in the entire world approximately ninety percent

of the garments produced in the world are exported. These transportations are done by the

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use of freighters which use fuel that is one thousand times more pollution than the fuel of a

highway truck.

Major Countries Involved

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is the textbook example of a country affected by the producing of cotton,

because the Aral Sea which lays in Uzbekistan. The Aral Sea was once the fourth largest

lake in the world, is now almost completely dried up because it is used to irrigate the big

cotton fields in Uzbekistan.

China

China is the main producer of clothing, producing approximately fifteen percent of the

world supply, which is partly why they are the most polluting country in the world.

United States of America

The United States of America is the base of the most big fashion industry companies.

Apart from that is the USA also the biggest importer of clothing made in different countries.

Indonesia

Indonesia is a big producer of clothing especially for the dye that is used in the

clothes that are made. Because of this there is a lot of pollution in Indonesia, especially the

water of the Citarum River is very much polluted because there is no good infrastructure

created while the industry boomed very fast which led to few regulations to keep the water of

the Citarum River.

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Bangladesh

Bangladesh is also a big producer of clothing. Bangladesh also is very vulnerable to

climate change, through droughts, floods, etc. which can also turn out in big catastrophes for

the clothing industry such as in 2013.

Timeline of Events

Date Description of event

March 21, 1994 UNFCCC is ratified

June 1, 2007Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals

(REACH) regulations enter into force by the EU

July 1, 2012 Higg Index is introduced by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition

May 3, 2012 Copenhagen Fashion Summit

December 10, 2018 Launching of the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action

Relevant UN Treaties and Events

Signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change treaty, in

Rio de Janeiro on June 4, 1992 (FCCC/INFORMAL/84) Establishing of the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action on December 10,

2018.

Previous Attempts to solve the IssueThe promoting of sustainable clothing is something that is getting more active the last

few years, for example the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Change and the “Green

Fashion Week”, a project of the UNFCCC together with the organization of the Fashion

Week. But despite this there are still not a lot of big attempts to solve the problem of the big

polluting fashion industry.

Possible Solutions

While there are few alternatives to the use of cotton, there are a lot of good

alternative options to the use of the problem of the current common used resources. One

solution is to only produce garments from organic cotton, which will still take a lot of water but

at least neutralises the use of a lot of unnecessary chemicals. This could be achieved by

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banning certain chemicals or by extra funding for research of sustainable ways to make

garments. Also the water problem could be solved by putting research in a water efficient

kind of cotton which could be planted in dryer circumstances.

The easiest problem to solve is the transport problem. By making more domestic

products there is a lot less emission from the freighters that transport the exported and

imported products to produce and to sell the garments. By establishing a minimum quota of

domestic products or by establishing a maximum quota of imported products countries will be

forced to stop the outsourcing, which is also a big point in the agenda of a lot of new

governments. The reducing of outsourcing is also possibly achieved by tariffs or special

taxes on the garments or certain products needed for the producing of the garments such as

cotton or certain chemicals.

Another big problem that needs to be solved is the pollution of water due to the

production. In many countries this has already gone to such a high level that it is practically

impossible to save the water, such as in the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan and in the Citarum River

in Indonesia. But it certainly still is possible to make sure that the situation is not going to

worsen or that other seas, rivers and lakes face the same destiny as these have. This could

be achieved by strict regulations on the overly use of water in the vicinity of certain lakes and

rivers or by regulating the dumping of wastewater in rivers. This will save the flora and fauna

in the vicinity of these rivers and lakes but also the people who are relying on this water for

fishing or drinking water.

Another possible solution lies in the promoting of buying fewer clothes. If the demand

reduces, the supply and thus the production will also reduce significantly. This will also mean

that the pollution of the production and also the transport will reduce significantly. The

reducing of the consumption can be achieved through multiple ways. The easiest way is by

raising the price of clothes. If the price is higher, the demand for clothes will be lower. This

rise in price could be by setting a minimum price, by tariffs or by special taxes on clothes.

Another way to make people buy fewer clothes is by setting quotas. By an importing quota

there will maybe be more domestic produced garments, which is already better for the

environment, but it could also be that there will not be a rise in domestically produced

garments and thus less produced and sold clothes. Eventually there is also a way of

reducing interest in clothing by promoting recycling or other ways of a longer use of the

garments, for example through promotion at big fashion shows, big fashion magazines and

fashion companies, but also by the government with their own promotion.

The last, more extreme, possible solution is to ban certain types of products used in

garments, such as polyester or used chemicals, or to ban garments made in certain

countries under certain circumstances.

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Bibliography

“Bangladesh Disaster Risk and Climate Resilience Program.” World Bank, 15 July 2018, www.worldbank.org/en/country/bangladesh/brief/bangladesh-disaster-risk-climate-change-program.

“English Dictionary, Translations & Thesaurus.” Cambridge Dictionary, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/.

Hoskins, Tansy. “Cotton Production Linked to Images of the Dried up Aral Sea Basin.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 1 Oct. 2014, www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion-blog/2014/oct/01/cotton-production-linked-to-images-of-the-dried-up-aral-sea-basin.

Perry, Patsy. “The Environmental Costs of Fast Fashion.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 8 Jan. 2018, www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/environment-costs-fast-fashion-pollution-waste-sustainability-a8139386.html.

Sweeny, Glynis. “Fast Fashion Is the Second Dirtiest Industry in the World, Next to Big Oil.” EcoWatch, EcoWatch, 17 Apr. 2015, www.ecowatch.com/fast-fashion-is-the-second-dirtiest-industry-in-the-world-next-to-big--1882083445.html.

“Textile News.” Creating Material Change, 10 Dec. 2018, https://textileexchange.org/milestone-fashion-industry-charter-for-climate-action-launched/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-v2YtK_c3wIVj-R3Ch0p5QmjEAAYASAAEgLor_D_BwE.

Appendix

I. IntroductionII. Definition of key wordsIII. Background informationIV. Major countries involvedV. Timeline of eventsVI. Relevant UN treaties and eventsVII. Previous attempts to solve the issueVIII. Possible solutionsIX. BibliographyX. Appendix

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