FOSSIL FUEL FASHION
CAMPAIGN LAUNCH, NEW YORK CLIMATE WEEK 2023
Livia Firth, Vanessa Nakate and Harjeet Singh launch The FOSSIL FUEL FASHION campaign during UNGA/Climate Week NYC
in partnership with leading NGOs including Fashion Revolution, Plastic Soup Foundation, Lonely Whale, and The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
We are all wearing oil: why we need a fair phase out of fossil fuels from the fashion industry.
Ugandan Climate Justice Activist Vanessa Nakate, Eco-Age Founder Livia Firth MBE, and Harjeet Singh, Global Engagement Director to the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty joined climate and human rights leaders to launch a campaign calling for prompt, radical legislative action to break the fashion industry’s intrinsic links to fossil fuels.
New York, Tuesday 19th September 2023: Today, the FOSSIL FUEL FASHION campaign launched during Climate Week NYC, with an expert-led panel discussion on fashion’s over-reliance on fossil fuels. Fashion’s climate impact is traditionally under-represented during key climate negotiations and the campaign seeks to ensure the industry does not fly under the radar in the wider call for an equitable and just phase out of fossil fuels.
The event, hosted by The Rockefeller Brothers Fund at New York City's iconic Morgan Library, saw Ugandan climate justice activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Vanessa Nakate, Eco-age Founder Livia Firth MBE, Eco-Age Policy Director George Harding-Rolls, Global Engagement Director to the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, Harjeet Singh, Stand.earth’s Corporate Climate Campaigner, Rachel Kitchin and Program Associate for Democratic Practice-Global Challenges and Sustainable Development at The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Cameren Bullins engage in an important discussion in front of a full audience comprising of business leaders, civil society, philanthropists, UN delegates, climate activists and key fashion industry figures.
Built on more than three years of investigations and research by the campaign’s partners, including Stand.earth, Plastic Soup Foundation, and the Geneva Centre for Business and Human Rights, the Fossil Fuel Fashion campaign highlights the intrinsic link between Big Oil and the fashion industry, and the direct correlation between the growth of fast fashion and its reliance on synthetic fossil fuel derived fibres – one cannot exist without the other.
Ugandan Climate Justice Activist Vanessa Nakate, Program Associate for Democratic Practice-Global Challenges and Sustainable Development at The Rockefeller Brothers Fund Cameren Bullins, Corporate Climate Campaigner at Stand.Earth Rachel Kitchin, Eco-Age Founder Livia Firth MBE, Harjeet Singh, Global Engagement Director to the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, and George Harding-Rolls, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Eco-Age.
“More than any other industry, fashion drives and thrives off the inequality between the Global North and the Global South. While fashion companies grow rich on a fast fashion business model fed by fossil fuels, they dump their waste and pollution on countries in the Global South least equipped to deal with it. A fast, fair phase out of fossil fuels from fashion is critical for climate justice.”
VANESSA NAKATE
The campaign calls for prompt, radical legislative action to stem overproduction in the fashion industry and decouple it from fossil fuels with three calls to action: an equitable phase out fossil fuel-based materials, a commitment to science-based climate targets and open support of systemic legislative action.
George Harding-Rolls, Eco-Age’s Policy and Advocacy Director says: “Whether its supply chains tainted by polyester produced from discount Russian oil, or the scourge of plastic clothing dumped in the Global South, fossil fuels are woven into the fabric of the fashion industry from well-head to waste. Our call for a fair phase out of fossil fuels comes as the world experiences one of the hottest years in human history – the fashion industry can no longer ignore its role in mitigating this crisis.”
Synthetic fibres such as polyester, derived from oil and gas, will account for 73% of fibre production by 2030. Along with other plastics, they also represent a significant revenue stream for the fossil fuel, giving it ongoing licence to operate in a world rapidly trying to decarbonize.
Livia Firth, Eco-Age founder says: “As someone who has been campaigning against overproduction and overconsumption fuelled by the fashion industry for many years, I welcome a campaign that finally unveils how fossil fuels and corporate greed are once again the driving force behind exploitation of people and planet. Through our closets and the clothes, we wear every day, Big Oil is drowning the world in fossil fuels.”
Eminent environmental scientist, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Dr Johan Rockström, said “The fashion industry, with its global reach, is intrinsically connected to numerous environmental and socioeconomic issues, encompassing resource extraction, international trade, human rights, agriculture, consumer behaviour, geopolitics, and environmental pollution. Our research shows six of the nine planetary boundaries have now been crosses, and anthropogenic activities are a key driver of this. As a sector, fashion is closely linked to exceeding planetary boundaries in several ways, an influence which can no longer be overlooked or underestimated.”
The FOSSIL FUEL FASHION campaign panel in New York is the first in a programme of activations by the campaign coalition, which will include activities in Brussels, COP28 and the World Economic Forum in Davos. The work of the campaign seeks to leverage the combined power of policy interventions, innovations and business solutions, and grassroots campaigning to drive a phase out of fossil fuels from fashion.