The French Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and Environmental Cost for Textiles - a Brief Primer

The full analysis can be found here:

France is moving fast to slow fashion.

But is it going down the right path? Are any of us?

The proposed €5 surcharge linked to fast fashion’s ecological footprint still has to pass a second vote. The French PEF is about to be implemented, and all fashion, not just fast fashion producers, will be forced to inform consumers about the environmental impact of their output.

French legislators surely mean well, but you have only to look at Chart 1 in the linked paper to see that it is inconsistent to call for an environmental charge on low-cost items whilst simultaneously declaring that the fiber that most of these clothes are made of - polyester - is the most environmentally friendly option.

All of this is not taking place in a vacuum. France has global commitments that it must honor.

France has pledged not to consider the environment as a sphere separate from human actions, ambitions, and needs. It has agreed not to focus on social equity between generations in the Global North alone, without considering equity within the current generation at all. It has committed to the Precautionary Principle. France is a signatory to the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. It joined in sponsoring UN Resolution 78/169 Natural Plant Fibres and Sustainable Development. France is on the record insisting that: “The EU should adopt a much stronger and clearer narrative on the exit from fossil fuel demand."

France cannot, indeed this applies to all of us so let me rephrase - we cannot - make grandiose commitments on the global stage and then develop laws, directives, apps, rating systems, reporting requirements - you name it - that fly firmly in the opposite direction.