Textile-apparel decarbonisation progress off-track: Cascale report

“While pockets of action exist, as a whole the apparel, footwear and textiles industry is demonstrating insufficient scaled decarbonisation progress to meet the climate goals of the Paris Agreement,” it noted in a recent report.

While the most recent data indicates a modest shift toward lower-intensity performance categories, the pace of progress remains far below what is required to meet climate targets, it said.

Energy-related emissions continue to be driven primarily by large facilities and thermal energy use, particularly in tier-II facilities, where heat-intensive processes dominate., the report titled ‘State of the Industry report 2026: Decarbonisation Progress in the Apparel, Footwear & Textiles Industry’ said.

Coal remains a critical barrier to progress, accounting for 31 per cent of total energy consumption and showing no meaningful decline year over year.

Despite this overall trend, significant differences exist between individual facilities, across geography, production type and facility size.

Notably, emissions are driven by a small number of large facilities that have a high reliance on thermal energy. Identifying and focusing on these facilities has the potential to scale progress more quickly than focusing equally on all facilities, the report said.

Tier 1 facilities tend to show a greater degree of electrification, though there are significant differences between countries.

Although a growing number of facilities report purchasing or generating renewable energy, renewables account for only a small fraction (2 per cent) of total industry energy consumption and this fraction remained static between 2023 and 2024 reporting periods.

Meaningful reductions in emissions will depend on accelerating the transition away from coal, expanding electrification in large, energy-intensive facilities, and rapidly increasing the share of renewable energy, the report added.

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