A seminar titled ‘Connecting the Threads’ is being organized as part of the Sixth UN Environment Assembly and will be held in Nairobi on February 27, 2024. Connecting the Threads is a coordinated policy response to transform the textile value chain and offer solutions that preserve nature.
In line with the UNEA-6 theme, this event will provide the opportunity to examine the environmental and social impacts across the entire value chain. The lead organizers are the Ministry of Infrastructure & Water Management of the Netherlands and the Ministry of Trade of Turkey. According to the UN, the textile and garment sector provides high employment levels while generating US $1.5 trillion in revenue. But it also struggles to address its contributions to the triple planetary climate change crisis, nature loss, and pollution.
Every year, the textile sector emits 2-8 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, uses water equivalent to 86 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, and is responsible for 9 percent of ocean microplastics. “The impact on biodiversity is across the entire value chain, from use of agrichemicals while producing cotton to release of hazardous chemicals into local waterways and microfibre shedding during washing clothes.” The UN said in a press release.
Connecting the Threads will seek to address these issues and seek an inclusive and coordinated policy response to address the problems at all stages of the textile value chain. These begin with product and business model design, fiber, fabric, and textile production, consumption, and end-of-life, and finding solutions.
