Our research highlights just a handful of considerations that we believe are already sufficient to place a question mark on the advisability of the French PEF going ahead as planned.

Our analysis considered the draft JRC Report in light of A. Consistency with the European Union’s global commitments. B. Extent, Depth, and Validity of The Data Used to Inform The Information and Performance Requirements.

Regrettably, the proposed ESPR fails on both counts.

To complete and complement the ICAC’s republication of my recent work on the Great Greenwashing Machine, I was asked to reflect on what progress (if any) has been made; where we go from here; and who needs to be involved on that journey.

1. The weighting of the European Union’s (EU) Product Environmental Footprint, or PEF, is wrong.

2. We must focus on climate change

And

3. Not all climate emissions are equal. Climate impact must be weighted - and not just in the PEF, but in all LCAs - whilst water and land probably should not be.

Terry Townsend, Cotton Analytics & Veronica Bates Kassatly, Independent Analyst

Presented by Terry Townsend on the Jubilee of the 85 th Anniversary of the Court of Arbitration At the Gdynia Cotton Association, 7-8 September 2023

The Role of Natural Fibers in Sustainable Solutions. Sustainability Includes Justice, Justice Requires Access to Technology

In the third and final article, we take a closer look at the claims for alpaca made by the ‘sustainable’ apparel sector. I walk through how these claims prioritize a global north perspective that diminishes the most disadvantaged, those in the global south who are producing the fiber. We conclude with an understanding of how the claims of ‘environmental harm’ are contributing actual harm to the livelihoods of small-scale alpaca farmers.

In my last article: Alpaca – more prized than gold by the Incas, still scorned by the west?, we price checked alpaca against other fibers – it’s expensive. As discussed in my previous articles on silk, this means that there is an economic incentive for brands and their funded initiatives to portray alpaca as environmentally harmful. Do they? And if so, is it justified?

llamas and alpacas are one of nature’s many miracles – a creature that can turn habitats otherwise incapable of supporting human life, into homelands for the pastoralists who depend upon them.