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On 30 November, international delegations will descend on Dubai for the 28th annual United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP). The two-week event plays host to world leaders, activists, media, businesses and civilians, all with the common goal of limiting climate change.
It’s a lofty mission, and the pressure riding on each conference is immense. Making sense of such a whirlwind event — and getting the most out of it — is easier said than done. To help, Vogue Business called on conference veterans from the sustainable fashion space to share their advice for first-timers and seasoned attendees alike. This guide covers everything from the political context, to how to prepare and which high-level conversations to take part in.
Since its first iteration in Berlin in 1995, COP has brought together the signatories of the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in a bid to halt the already inevitable effects of rising global temperatures. The so-called “parties” — of which there are now 199 — have met almost every year since, bar the pandemic in 2020, with the COP presidency rotating between the five recognised UN regions (Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, central and eastern Europe, and western Europe and others).
The topics discussed and the treaties negotiated at COP can have a direct impact on global fashion supply chains, which often bring together conference interests such as gender, nature, finance and technology. But the conference is also an opportunity for fashion professionals to manage upwards, making their voices heard on key issues affecting the industry. Fashion’s presence at COP has historically been limited, with a small number of brands and non-profits fighting to be taken seriously alongside the big-hitters of energy, industry and agriculture. That’s now starting to change, as this year, LVMH, Eco-Age and Global Fashion Agenda will be among those taking on the mantle.
Last year’s conference took a surprising turn at the last minute, when negotiators agreed to a loss and damage fund, seemingly answering decades-long calls to support the vulnerable countries hit hardest by climate disasters, despite having contributed the least. The text left much to be decided, including a concrete financial structure for the fund, to be established by COP28. All eyes will be on whether this gets pushed through in Dubai, and what the consequences will be for industries like fashion, where this global inequality plays out in supply chains. “Fashion brands do much of their production in the Global South, and the burden of textile waste often falls on the Global South too,” says George Harding-Rolls, who heads the newly minted advisory division of strategy consultancy Eco-Age, who previously worked for Changing Markets Foundation.
On this year’s agenda
COP28 has already proven controversial in its choice of president — Dr Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) — and the prominence of oil and gas lobbyists. Eco-Age says it will be pushing back against this by promoting its Fossil Fuel Fashion campaign, which calls for an equitable phase-out of fossil fuel-based materials, commitment to science-based targets, and systemic change through tighter legislation.
While fossil fuels are hot on the general COP28 agenda, their link to fashion is lesser known. “Fashion is flying under the radar despite having a huge footprint and touching on so many issues others are talking about, from agriculture and decarbonisation to transport,” says Harding-Rolls. “One of the things under a lot of pressure is the wording around phasing out fossil fuels. If the negotiating text that comes out of COP28 is ambitious on that front, fashion executives will need to take a really hard look at what that means for the industry.”
Textile Exchange has decided not to attend in-person, says CEO Claire Bergkamp, although several of its partners will be in Dubai for the conference. Bergkamp says she will be following along remotely, and is particularly excited by the prospect of an event by International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling (Iseal) focused on the role of standard systems in accelerating progress. She is expecting conversations around finance, fossil fuels and carbon capture to prove controversial, but says fashion should also pay attention to what happens with agriculture. “Fashion and food go hand in hand, and a huge portion of raw materials are derived from the land. This means that any discussions around agriculture and food will also be a vital opportunity to address how raw materials are produced in the fashion and textile space.”
Agriculture will also be a focus for LVMH. “COP28 represents an opportunity to convene with like-minded organisations and explore collaboration opportunities to accelerate our progress on the protection of biodiversity, the fight against climate change, circular economy and traceability,” says Hélène Valade, LVMH’s environment development director. She will be sharing the conglomerate’s progress on regenerative agriculture during a panel with the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance.
“I find that blue zone events [where official UN negotiations take place] are typically more interesting to a business audience than green zone events [a less formal space intended to inspire, engage and educate community-led climate action],” says Giulio Berruti, EMEA director of climate change at business network and consultancy Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), which is taking a seven-person delegation to COP28. High on BSR’s agenda are just transition (the theme for 5 December and a key topic at the International Labour Organisation pavilion); accountability for non-state actors such as fashion brands (accountability is the theme for 4 December); and nature, land use, and oceans (the theme for 9 December and a core priority for fashion following COP15, last year’s UN Biodiversity Conference).
Fashion Revolution will have a delegation representing its global, India, Pakistan, UAE and Brazil teams. In line with its annual Fashion Transparency Index, the campaigning organisation will be calling on brands to publish their supplier lists from Tier 1 to Tier 3, alongside their energy mix by country (fossil fuels versus renewables), and how they are financially supporting suppliers towards a just transition. Fashion Revolution will also be amplifying The Or Foundation’s #SpeakVolumes campaign at COP28, which asks brands to disclose their annual production volumes, a foundational step towards minimising waste.
Like BSR, Fashion Revolution is looking to bring growth — more specifically, degrowth — into the fashion conversation at COP28. “This was noticeably missing from COP26, both in terms of financial growth and production volumes,” says Liv Simpliciano, policy and research manager at Fashion Revolution. “Any meaningful discussion on decarbonisation must also address overproduction as one of the root causes of the social and environmental impacts of the fashion industry.”
While fashion isn’t a standalone theme on the COP28 agenda, it touches on many of the cross-sector topics that will shape negotiations. “Fashion intersects with so many of the high-level conversations at COP,” says Mary Fellowes, founder of UK sustainable fashion innovation consultancy Greenwith Studio and fashion impact director of non-profit Extreme Hangout, which is hosting a pavilion in the green zone focused on youth activism. She points to fossil fuels, renewable energy, agriculture, deforestation and climate finance among others. “What you prioritise during the conference depends on what your pain points are as an organisation. Don’t go in with fashion blinkers on.”
How to prepare for COP28
It’s important to research key topics in advance, so you have the latest data and developments front-of-mind before you arrive, says journalist and climate advocate Sophia Li.
Many attendees come armed with a hit list of potential new contacts, having scoped out the exhibitors list and set up meetings ahead of time. It’s worth bearing in mind that the agenda is often still in flux as the conference unfolds, as attendees take last-minute opportunities to platform their ideas and insights. Last year, Changing Markets Foundation staged a guerilla event on the link between Russian oil and fashion production, after getting to know the delegates at the Ukrainian pavilion. “You have to be opportunistic,” says Eco-Age’s Harding-Rolls.
It’s easy to miss last-minute events or those outside the official schedule. Samata Pattinson, founder and CEO of cultural sustainability organisation Black Pearl, is part of several Whatsapp groups that will share real-time updates during the event, including last-minute events and useful links, and has found the UNFCCC’s Observer Handbook to be a helpful wayfinder. While it helps to have a sense of your agenda in advance, you should always leave room to adapt, says Federica Marchionni, CEO of Global Fashion Agenda.
COP is a unique opportunity to see how others approach the climate crisis, says Solitaire Townsend, co-founder and chief solutionist at Futerra, a sustainability change agency whose clients include the UN, Lancôme, Yoox Net-a-Porter Group and PVH. “It’s a valuable experience to be in a space where my nation and my worldview is not the dominant one. COP confronts you with the fact that you are one of many. Each country — from Malaysia to Mexico — has their own space in the blue zone, where you can see how they choose to talk about climate change and what they’re doing to tackle it. It’s an incredibly important mindset-check. I’m a better solutionist because I’m confronted with that every year.”
COP28 will also include a global stocktake, which happens every five years and is an opportunity to measure progress towards the Paris Climate Agreement, which fashion is on track to miss. This comes after the UN high-level conference in New York in September, where UN secretary general António Guterres issued a wake-up call to world leaders that progress is too little, too late.
Set your objectives in advance
NGOs and campaigning organisations often arrive at COP with a list of demands for industry attendees and policymakers. If this is the case for you, try to align your demands with peers and potential allies before you arrive, to maximise your impact, says Fashion Revolution’s Simpliciano. This year, Fashion Revolution is attending as a community partner of the Entertainment and Culture Pavilion, a new pavilion aimed at fostering community for the creative sector to work alongside policymakers, frontline activists and government officials.
The Apparel Impact Institute (AII) will be using COP28 to unlock blended capital for financial tools it is launching to support suppliers by region, says president Lewis Perkins, adding that he has emailed potential partners in advance to set up meetings about this. He will also be attending events with Bloomberg Green and Goals House, and speaking on several panels. “I try to be very specific,” he says. “The goal is to educate people in finance, philanthropy and different forms of capital and investment about what we’re working on and how textile supply chains might be aligned to the same types of solutions they are funding.”
Canadian non-profit Fashion Takes Action (FTA) is also on the lookout for funding, hoping to secure global partners to help scale its youth education platform, My Clothes My World, which teaches school children aged 8-17 about sustainable fashion. “I’ve been advised to prepare a few different versions of a two-minute pitch so I can explain what we do to different people we meet, focusing on the high-level without too much detail,” says FTA founder Kelly Drennan. FTA has also created private pages on its website with QR code links, so new contacts can find out how to partner with the organisation and submit their details.
At COP27, environmental non-profit Canopy announced a joint commitment between Kering, Stella McCartney, H&M and Zara to purchase 500,000 tons of low-carbon fibres to replace viscose sourced from climate-critical forests. This year, it is planning to top that announcement with another about scaling up low-impact next gen materials, says Canopy founder and executive director Nicole Rycroft. “Stabilising our climate has to be a team sport,” she explains. “COP provides an opportunity for business leaders to join forces, take bolder actions and use a collective voice to motivate similarly ambitious actions by governments, suppliers and the investment community. The volume of dire climate news can be overwhelming, so it’s a priority for us to ensure that we have concrete and exciting advances to announce.”
How to make the most of COP28 once you arrive
With so much going on, and so much pressure riding on just two weeks to solve a centuries-old issue, COP could seem overwhelming. The key is to keep your expectations in check, says Futerra’s Townsend. “COP is the floor, not the ceiling, of what we are doing globally on climate change. It’s what every country in the world — including countries currently at war with each other — can agree to. Meanwhile, you are in a place with tens of thousands of people at one event, with several thousand possible options of things you could go to or participate in each day. There is no way to avoid fomo (fear of missing out).”
Still, days often start at 7am and end as late as 2am, so jet lag is compounded by ongoing exhaustion. The physical and emotional toll of this isn’t exactly conducive to decision-making, especially on such existential matters as the climate crisis. There is scope for host countries to pay closer attention to this, says Townsend. “It’s no surprise that the Paris Climate Agreement came out of Paris (COP21). There was water and coffee everywhere, and the organisers invited the best restaurants in Paris to set up pop-ups inside, so there was great food available throughout. They also stopped for mealtimes, which doesn’t normally happen. They gave a great deal of attention to the fact that this was a bunch of tired, hungry humans coming together to make this extraordinary commitment happen.”
Rest is important, but it’s also a privilege, says journalist Li. “Some of the Global South countries and island nations are talking about climate change in the context of today, tomorrow or next month. Most of the Global North countries are talking about something more abstract, years into the future. Our energy is a renewable resource, but there’s an imbalance in that.”
Business interests are increasingly prominent at COP, so attendees need to stay vigilant to potential greenwashing, says Simpliciano. “COP — and many other global conferences — now serve as a pedestal for brands to make glossy announcements and sing their own praises,” she explains. “It begs the question of whether these spaces are used for critical discussion or marketing. We don’t need more commitments — we need more progress.”
To avoid getting caught up in the “greenwashing circus”, Textile Exchange’s Bergkamp says attendees can ask themselves three key questions: “How can we take a systems-level approach to understanding how our industry fits in with other industries? Where are we leading, and where are we lagging? And what can we do to foster genuine, long-standing collaboration?”
Key takeaway: Fashion may not be an official theme for COP28, but the industry will be directly impacted by many of the climate change conference’s negotiations, from agriculture and biodiversity to gender equality and just transition. The main topic to look out for this year is fossil fuels, which will be hotly contested. To stay focused amid the chaos, fashion professionals should plan ahead and remain agile as plans change and last-minute opportunities arise.
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