COP27 has just come to an end in the seaside resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh in the land of the pyramids. Reports coming in informed that more than 40,000 topnotchers from across the globe were trying to hammer out a route map on how to reach net-zero by 2050.
The spotlight there was on fashion too, being as it is the second most polluting industry globally.
Now what is net-zero? Fast fashion with its use of fibre to fabrics derived from fossil fuels — the non-renewable sources of energy like coal, coal products, natural gas, derived gas, crude oil, petroleum products and non-renewable wastes — ensures depletion of non-renewable sources including water, and also emission of greenhouse gases.
Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide impact the earth's energy balance, and that proportion has been increasing alarmingly, triggered largely by man-made sources. World Bank stats attribute about 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions to fashion.
And netzero is the mission to achieve a balance between the carbon released into the atmosphere, and also simultaneously working towards removing it by taking adequate steps.
For instance, according to a research, cutting down significantly on your clothing purchases could reduce fashion’s emissions in major cities.
Remember covid when the rivers and the air cleansed by themselves simply because we were confined indoors? It is the untethered growth of human activity that has shifted the natural balance everywhere, causing climate change.
As discussions, talk shows, lobbying et al raged on in Egypt, what is abundantly clear is that we at the individual, society and governmental level must take immediate steps to switch to a planet-friendly lifestyle. The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – COP27 – did what it had to. There were countless pledges and announcements, but they will all come to naught if we do not act now.
