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Weaving sustainability: Indian textiles & EU's CBAM challenge

19 May '25

8 min read

Weaving sustainability: Indian textiles & EU's CBAM challenge

Insights

As EU plans to expand its CBAM to include textiles, Indian textiles face growing pressure to meet strict environmental standards.
Despite stable export growth and moderate fossil fuel reliance, India lags behind its competitors in renewable energy use.
To secure EU market access, India must urgently invest in clean energy solutions, modernise infrastructure, and embrace sustainable manufacturing.

If included, the focus will expand beyond carbon pricing to key sustainability areas such as circularity, adherence to labour standards, and compliance with environmental practices like the Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) policy. Beyond CBAM, the textile sector is already under the regulatory lens of the EU’s broader climate agenda—being a part of the European Green Deal and the &#**;Fit for **&#**; package, which seeks to cut carbon emissions in the EU by ** per cent.

The EU’s continued interest in importing environmentally sound products has caught the attention of the world, with several manufacturing countries moving towards clean energy. India’s textile industry, in particular, uses a significant amount of water in apparel production, along with other processes such as dyeing. Fibre2Fashion explores the readiness of India’s apparel industry to meet environmental standards, diversify its export markets, and focus on EU countries.