Left unmanaged, green transition in the garment and textile industry can lead to serious problems in Bangladesh

According to a report published today by the Finnish business and human rights organisation, Finnwatch, Bangladeshi workers are not ready for the green transition in the clothing and textile industry. The organisation demands swift action in order to ensure that transition is just for the workers, as companies must reduce their emissions at an accelerating pace.

The report is based on interviews with clothing and textile industry workers and non-governmental organisations. It paints a bleak picture of the workers’ resilience and ability to adapt to the upcoming changes in the clothing and textile industry. The interviewed workers worked in factories that produce clothes for the European market. In the making of the report, Finnwatchin collaborated with the Awaj Foundation, a Bangladeshi labour rights organisation.

– Discussion about climate action in the clothing industry, and the upheaval that it is likely to cause, is only in its infancy in Bangladesh. Most of the workers we interviewed didn't even know what climate change means, says a Finnwatch researcher Anu Kultalahti.

Although the concept of climate change was not familiar to the interviewed workers, the workers still talked about the numerous ways in which climate change already affects their lives. Rising temperatures, droughts, floods and heavy rains were all present in the workers' testimony. The clothing and textile industry in Bangladesh employs a growing number of the country’s internal climate migrants, who were also present among the workers interviewed by Finnwatch.

– Workers from the countryside are constantly flowing into the cities where factories are located. The workers we interviewed said that without jobs in the clothing and textile industry, they would be left with nothing, says Kultalahti.

Bangladesh is a poor country and 86 percent of its export revenue stems from the clothing and textile industry. The country is known for its cheap labour and the workers interviewed by Finnwatch received a salary that is insufficient to afford a decent standard of living, and from which nothing can be put aside for the future.

– The workers live from hand to mouth, and the raging inflation in Bangladesh has made it even more difficult for them to make ends meet. There is no unemployment insurance, and the various state social security schemes are fragmented and ineffective. The interruptions to the production that the COVID-19 pandemic caused in the spring of 2020 exposed these shortcomings starkly, as the furloughed and dismissed workers were abandoned and left to cope on their own.

The upcoming textile strategy of the European Union, the corporate sustainability due diligence directive that is currently being negotiated, and the stricter corporate sustainability reporting requirements that have already been passed will all contribute to the much needed changes in the clothing and textile industry. The industry must cut its emissions to net zero and adopt business models based on circularity, at the same time as automation increases. These changes have been estimated to lead to jobs being moved closer to the consumer markets. According to the International Labour Organization, the so-called nearshoring can already be seen in the international export statistics of the clothing and textile industry.

– The climate crisis hits Bangladesh from two directions. As a densely populated low-lying coastal country, Bangladesh is very vulnerable to extreme weather events, sea level rise and the resulting erosion and salinization of land. At the same time, measures to combat the climate crisis are going to cause problems to its economy that is overly reliant on exports from just one sector, says climate policy specialist Lasse Leipola from Finnwatch.

– The solution is not postponing climate action, but ensuring that the transition is just. Climate action covering the entire garment and textile value chain is just beginning, and it is important to ensure that workers are included in the planning of the transition from the beginning, Leipola says.

Finnwatch urges companies in the clothing and textile industry to adopt and implement plans for science-based emission reductions covering their entire value chain and for achieving net zero. At the same time, these plans must involve and be inclusive of workers’ perspective in order to mitigate the harmful effects that the transition could have on them. The EU and its member states must ensure ambitious implementation at the national level of EU legislation, such as the corporate sustainability due diligence directive and the textile strategy, and provide international climate finance to the developing countries.

Ahead of the Finnish parliamentary elections this spring, more than 70 Finnish non-governmental organisations are campaigning to spark a national discussion on just transition. These organisations have signed joint principles for a just transition, which include a call for rich countries to support climate action in the developing countries.

– Finland's annual climate reporting should be expanded to keep track of the environmental and justice-related impacts that our national policies have on other countries, especially the developing economies, Leipola says.

The report is also available in Bengali (translation added in May 2023).

The project received financial support from Finland’s development cooperation funds.

Photo: UN Women/Fahad Abdullah Kaizer, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0