Shein and the carbon burden of fashion
Chris Wiegard
252 Posts

I have a volunteer in my chapter who is very concerned about the Chinese fashion industry and its enormous carbon burden, particularly the company known as “Shein.” Does CCL have an analysis of this issue? I am guessing that this is an example of an industry that is a great argument for a carbon tariff, as opposed to the current effort of the Trump administration to use tariffs in a scattershot mode without any interest whatsoever in the carbon intensity of foreign competitors.

2 Replies

Hi @Chris Wiegard. The fashion industry is indeed a big carbon polluter, estimated at close to 10% of global climate pollution, and fast fashion having a carbon footprint 11x larger than traditional fashion. One of the arguably few benefits of Trump's tariffs is that fast fashion companies like Shein and Temu have dramatically increased their product prices.

But fashion is a difficult target for carbon tariffs and CBAMs because it's complicated. For example, the Foreign Pollution Fee Act only targets a handful of industries like steel and aluminum for which it's relatively simple to estimate carbon intensity. And then it uses a national average, although individual companies can petition to show that their product's carbon intensity is lower than the national average. But imagine trying to calculate the national average carbon intensity of fashion products coming from China, for example.

Hey @Chris Wiegard, they might be interested connecting with the Fashion Industry Action Team. FIAT is currently working on supporting the Slow Fashion Caucus in Congress, the Protect our Clothes from PFAS Act (H.R.960), and state level bills in NY, CA, and MA focused on this, as well as other fashion industry related climate issues.

At the moment, I believe the state level actions, supporting The Fashion Acts in NY, CA, and MA are most closely connected to the impact of fast fashion companies like Shein and Temu.

Like Dana said, the fashion industry is complicated and the supply chains are convoluted. It’s also often overlooked in broader climate discussions. But that doesn’t mean action is not possible, and change is in the works.

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