Hello, and happy Friday!
This is Shayeza Walid, BoF’s sustainability reporter and guest author of The Frayed Edge while Sarah Kent is on maternity leave. You might have noticed some of my stories here for the last couple months, but I daresay you’ll be hearing from me a bit more frequently.
Though this newsletter is now moving to a bi-weekly cadence, I hope you’ll stick with me and my brilliant BoF colleagues as we track the progress, the setbacks and the occasional surprises in the effort to build a cleaner, fairer fashion system.
So, let’s get to it. In this edition:
- Climate summit season wrapped up with the end of an ultimately disappointing, COP30 in Brazil. Spoiler: the term “fossil fuels” didn’t even make it into the final agreement.
- A cyclone triggered fatal floods across South and Southeast Asia, where much of the fashion supply-chain lies, proving exactly why swifter climate action is not just necessary, but non-negotiable. In Sri Lanka, advocacy group Clean Clothes Campaign reported that hundreds of garment workers have also been left homeless.
- As the world heats up, momentum on pivotal sustainability measures, beyond a flurry of fur and ad bans, seems to be cooling down. Exhibit A: the European Parliament’s move to weaken and delay its landmark deforestation law.
As always, send us thoughts, feedback, tips and questions.
A “No, Can’t Do” COP
The outcome of this year’s COP30, which came to a conclusion in the heart of the Amazon rainforest in Belém, Brazil, was, by many accounts, a damp squib.
This year’s conference was deeply divisive. While negotiators ultimately delivered a deal that pledged to triple adaptation finance and established a “just transition” framework, the summit failed at arguably its central mission: there is no roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, and no binding plan to halt or reverse deforestation.
Despite early momentum, with more than 80 nations pushing for language on a fossil-fuel transition, the final text, released on Nov. 22, sidestepped the topic entirely after opposition from oil-producing and energy-dependent states.
What emerged was a document long on good intentions, but short on requirements.
Climate scientists warn that, as a result, the world’s emissions trajectory remains essentially unchanged, even as the deadline to meet 2030 goals looms alarmingly close. In the aftermath of the summit the EU Parliament COP delegation put out a statement echoing the disappointing deal.
“The outcome of COP30 secures a very minimal basis for global climate action, but the pace remains far too insufficient to meet the urgency of the climate crisis.”
— Mohammed Chahim, vice chair of the EU COP30 delegation
Why fashion needs to get going
For the fashion industry, the outcomes of COP30 land at an uncomfortable moment.
The industry depends heavily on workers in countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam — where temperatures inside garment factories are already reaching unbearable levels pushing workers into heat stress and squeezing already-thin margins for suppliers and brands.
Meanwhile the failure to halt deforestation means supply-chain risk remains acute, especially around materials like cattle-derived leather, rubber, and other commodities whose production is tightly linked to forests and fossil-fuel–intensive agriculture.
In this sense, the increase in adaptation finance to poorer climate-vulnerable nations is a positive move, but definitely not one fashion can or should rely on to move quick enough. Especially with the funding goal delayed from 2030 to 2035 and major brands already far off track on their own climate commitments.
An open letter response from climate groups to a communiqué issued by the UN Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action got to this point quite directly.
While commending the Charter’s united front — groups such as Action Speaks Louder, Stand.earth and Fashion Revolution warned that fashion’s emissions are still rising sharply and could reach 1.24 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030 if business continues as usual.
Also under criticism were the voluntary commitments and the failure to centre workers, noting that the people most exposed to extreme heat and climate instability remain absent from most brand climate plans.
“Nobody in the industry wants to own this problem — not the brands, not the suppliers, not the governments,” said Judd. “But if you’re a garment worker in Dhaka in May when it’s 38 degrees in the afternoon, to hear that world governments in Brazil have agreed on some broad measures for adaptation, that’s very little comfort.”
— Jason Judd, executive director at Cornell University’s Global Labour Institute
Alas, things are not looking so good.
In the final days of the summit, countries promised, via Brazil’s COP presidency, to draft voluntary roadmaps for fossil-fuel transition and forest protection ahead of the next climate summit set to be hosted in Turkey under an Australian presidency. Leaving the world in yet another TBD situation around climate action.
For a full breakdown of the implications of this year’s UN climate summit, read our story on why the COP30 deal won’t solve fashion’s climate problems, here.
Devastating Floods in Sri Lanka
Over the last two weeks, multiple countries across South and Southeast Asia were hit with fatal floods.
Sri Lanka was particularly hard hit, with more than 479 killed by the cyclone and following floods, with the death toll expected to rise as rescue operations continue and 350 still missing.
On Monday, Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the island was facing the “largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history.”
Garment workers, some of the poorest in the country, bore the brunt of the devastation. Entire worker settlements were submerged overnight, according to posts across social media from labour group Asia Wage Floor Alliance, which reported that homes flooded so quickly that residents had little time to gather belongings before being evacuated to relief camps. Access roads and surrounding industrial areas were also inundated, cutting workers off from food, clean water, transport, electricity and communication.
AFWA also reported that despite red-alert weather warnings, some suppliers instructed garment workers to report for duty while others abruptly closed without clarifying pay or support for affected employees.
But Sri Lanka is not the only country hit by extreme weather in recent weeks. Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia have also faced deadly flooding, bringing the total death toll across the region to more than 1,100. In Indonesia, also a key fashion sourcing country, the floods have been most fatal with at least 604 people killed.
As supply chains increasingly shift toward these climate-vulnerable countries due to tariffs and cost pressures, the case for rapid, factory-level adaptation has never been more urgent.
In both Sri Lanka and Indonesia, the military has been deployed for rescue operations, while aid talks are set to take place in the coming weeks to help with the severe economic damages across affected countries.
In the meantime labour groups are calling on international fashion brands that source from the region to play their part in supporting and providing aid to workers who have been impacted, while local NGOs coordinate relief efforts on the ground.
Ban Bonanza
If one thing has been clear this week it’s that we’re nearing the end of the fur era.
On Tuesday, Poland announced that it’s banning the breeding of animals of fur in an eight-year phase out plan.
Under the new legislation, no new fur farms will be allowed to open in Poland, while existing fur farms will have eight years to wind down operations, with breeders and farmers receiving compensation.
More than 20 countries including France, the Netherlands, Romania, Norway, Belgium and the Czech Republic have enacted bans or severe restrictions.
Also this week, the Council of Fashion Designers of America confirmed that New York Fashion Week will go entirely fur-free from September 2026.
However, fur’s been on the way out for a while.
Worldwide fur exports have fallen from a peak of $14.7 billion in 2013 to about $3.4 billion in 2023, driven by shrinking consumer demand and mounting scrutiny over animal welfare.
Although a handful of luxury houses continue to use animal fur, major luxury players including Gucci, Burberry, Prada, Chanel and Moncler have made fur-free commitments, while fashion weeks in London, Copenhagen and Amsterdam have banned fur from their runways. Earlier this fall, Condé Nast announced a fur ban across its editorial and advertising platforms, while Elle went fur-free in 2021.
For now, it seems that we are slowly bracing for a fur-free fashion world. Au revoir, fur.
Watering Down Deforestation Laws
After significantly scaling back landmark corporate sustainability rules, paving the way for much laxer environmental reporting and due-diligence requirements for large fashion brands early last month, more recently, the European Parliament added to its regulatory rollback spree.
Despite much pushback throughout the year, and a joint statement from Greenpeace and 94 other civil society organisations, lawmakers voted to delay and simplify core elements of the EU’s anti-deforestation regulation — a law originally designed to prevent products linked to forest loss from entering the bloc. The text was adopted by 402 votes to 250, underscoring the bloc’s pro-business turn.
Large and medium companies, such as some of fashion’s major players, were originally meant to report and comply with the rules by December 30, 2025, while small and micro enterprises to do so by June 30, 2026. Now both of these key obligation deadlines for companies placing cattle, rubber, leather and other high-risk commodities on the EU market have been pushed by a year. Meanwhile previously stringent traceability and geolocation requirements have been eased for a “significant proportion” of operators and small businesses.
Supporters say the amendments reduce administrative burden for companies, but environmental groups warn the changes risk opening the door to weaker enforcement at a time when global deforestation is accelerating.
Yet, while the EU Parliament and Council reached a provisional agreement to postpone and amend the EU Deforestation Regulation, they also mandated an early 2026 review of the law’s “administrative impact” even before it will come into force. In simple terms this means that there’s now potential for further simplification of the rules, which might let more large retailers off the hook.
At a time when the international community has failed to halt deforestation (at COP), stringent regulation offers a bedrock for things to move towards more sustainable practices.
But as it stands, in the EU, a business-first world is taking further shape as pressure for companies to get their act together, is faltering.
Why this matters
The softening of the law is a blow for brands reliant on leather, a supply chain already tangled up with cattle-driven deforestation in places like the Amazon.
With geolocation requirements eased, companies won’t need to map large sections of their upstream suppliers — reducing pressure to prove hides aren’t linked to forest loss. It effectively weakens one of the EU’s most ambitious attempts to bring real accountability to the cattle-to-leather pipeline.
Meanwhile rubber, key for footwear, accessories and trims, also gets swept into the rollback.
Stricter checks on plantation-linked deforestation in Southeast Asia and parts of Africa are now delayed, leaving brands in a murkier compliance landscape than the one they spent months preparing for. And while the rules may be softer, the reputational risks haven’t gone anywhere.
More broadly, the move stalls momentum toward deforestation-free fashion just as scrutiny from consumers, investors and regulators outside Europe is rising.
The end result: it’s up to the brands to be the good guys with dampened state oversight.
What Else You Need to Know:
Fashion’s Complicity in Worker Repression: In its first-ever extensive examination of the global garment industry via complementary reports, Amnesty International alleged that major brands have been complicit in widespread anti-union abuse across their South Asian supply chains. [The Business of Fashion]
Italy Investigations: The Italian Police requested 13 luxury fashion brands, including Gucci and Prada, to provide governance and supply-chain documents as part of an investigation into alleged worker exploitation in subcontracting factories the companies have been linked with. [The Business of Fashion]
More Time for Shein: In its new budget, the UK confirmed it will scrap its “de minimis” exemption on low-value imports, a loophole heavily relied on by Chinese e-commerce giants Shein and Temu, by 2029. However, the change is not as quick as many UK retailers would like, with fears of Chinese retailers dumping goods before the deadline. [The Business of Fashion]
No Time for Greenwashy Ads: The UK’s advertising watchdog has banned ads from Nike, Superdry and Lacoste for misleading consumers about the sustainability credentials of their products on Google search. [The Business of Fashion]
A Collapsing Sustainable Materials Market: In the aftermath of large investments and flashy deals with major brands, many material innovation startups from recycled fibres to bio-leather are now winding down. [The Financial Times]