COP28: leather industry should be better represented
The secretary of the International Council of Tanners, Dr Kerry Senior, has said he believes the leather industry should have more representation at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28).
At the event, which runs in Dubai from November 30 to December 12, he said there was “an entirely unique opportunity” for representatives of the leather industry to contribute to and influence the thinking that will go into policies for addressing climate change.
“The whole world is here,” he said, “including world leaders and governments, discussing the issue in a manner that can’t be achieved anywhere else.”
He pointed out that individuals and organisations that have the ear of policy makers were using COP28 as “a platform for attacking leather”. For example, designer Stella McCartney told Reuters she had travelled to Dubai “to represent the world of fashion” at the event.
She said fashion was one of the most polluting industries on the planet, but used COP28 to present Mirum, a material that biotech start-up Natural Fiber Welding has developed using natural raw materials, as one of the reasons to be optimistic about there being “a positive end to the story”.
Ms McCartney has invested in Mirum. A key attribute of the product, according to the comments she made to Reuters, was that it was “leather-free”.
“Without representation, there is no counter to these claims,” Dr Senior said, and he called for the leather industry to be better represented at future COP events. “We need to be here in the future,” he said, “to make the case for natural, long-lasting, climate-positive materials. We need to think about how that might happen.”
