From November 10 to 21, the Brazilian city of Belém will play host to the first United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) to take place at the gateway to the Amazon rainforest. For the fashion sector — an industry whose footprint reaches deep into Amazonian ecosystems — the location provides a unique opportunity for accountability and transformation. This is where industrial exploitation, Indigenous land rights and ecological survival collide, and where the industry’s most destructive supply chain practices meet its most promising regenerative solutions.
The timing is critical. The planet has just passed its first major tipping point with widespread coral reef deaths, the US is quickly defunding and dismantling climate policy, and around the world, climate denial and disinformation are spreading. Despite the absence of US negotiators since President Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement for a second time, there is a lot riding on COP30. Negotiators are tasked with accelerating COP28’s fossil fuel transition commitments, addressing COP29’s disappointing $300 billion climate finance shortfall (activists say $1.3 trillion is needed by 2035), and delivering overdue national climate pledges. For many activists, this summit will determine whether COPs remain relevant or merely deliver sustainability rhetoric without substance.
Below, Vogue Business unpacks the structural inequities and environmental challenges facing Brazil’s local fashion industry, the already controversial road to COP30, and everything fashion executives need to know to get the most out of what promises to be an intense and high-stakes outing.
The road to Belém
The road to COP30 has been highly controversial. Almost as soon as the location was confirmed, reports of accommodation shortages and price gouging raised concerns around accessibility. Brazil’s solution — chartering two cruise ships to house up to 6,000 additional attendees, with priority access granted to least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS) — led some to question whether Belém can handle an event of this scale.
But locals read this coverage differently. “These narratives are designed to devalue the Amazon, to make us seem incapable,” says Claudelice Santos, an environmental activist who founded Instituto Zé Claudio e Maria when her brother and sister-in-law were murdered in 2011 for denouncing illegal logging. Marco Normando and Emídio Contente, the designers behind Belém-based fashion label Normando, agree. “It reflects a structural tendency in those who pre-judge other cultures without knowing their background,” the pair say.
Yet, legitimate concerns remain over how COP30 preparations are affecting local communities. A four-lane highway carved through protected rainforest is disrupting riverside and Quilombola communities by blocking their access, while the deforestation has destroyed wildlife nursery areas and eliminated some of the açaí palms and forest resources local families depend on for their livelihoods through growing, fishing and hunting. “Environmental crimes are being committed in the name of progress,” says Santos. Perhaps, most troubling, is Brazil authorizing state-controlled oil and gas company Petrobras to explore for oil at the mouth of the Amazon on the eve of hosting the world’s premier climate conference.
For Santos, these contradictions make COP30’s location the right one. “It has to be here so that everyone can see. There’s no point in sweeping what’s happening under the rug,” she explains. Susanne Pinheiro Dias, a fashion scholar from Belém and lecturer at FAAP in São Paulo, specializing in Amazonian fashion history, puts it candidly: “This is a region that has been exploited, neglected and even aesthetically colonized. COP30 must not gloss over these complexities.”
For visitors traveling to Belém by plane from the south east, the realities of colonialism are center frame as they land: forests are being actively cleared for cattle ranching, making it impossible to ignore, and the conference location provides direct access for forest peoples to confront the crimes committed against them. “The conference in Belém offers a chance to restore the spirit of public mobilization,” says Isabella Luglio, head of research at Fashion Revolution Brazil.
Indigenous designer Rodrigo Tremembé sees the symbolic weight. “It’s a chance for the world to hear voices from the forest and coastal villages, like my Tremembé people in Ceará,” he says. But is also wary: “My concern is that, once again, we’ll be seen as a ‘topic’, and not part of the solution.”
The greenwashing fears are palpable. “I’m afraid the only legacy of COP30 will be beautiful photos with Amazonian scenery, but false handshakes,” notes Marina de Luca, Fashion Revolution Brazil’s mobilization co-ordinator. Luglio agrees: “We’re already seeing corporations use COP to greenwash with net-zero promises that don’t challenge the systems creating the crisis. COP30 must avoid becoming a business expo and prioritize justice-centered solutions led by those most affected.”
To some activists, environmental defenders and grassroots organizations, COP embodies elitism, corporate interest and exclusion. This has sparked a spirit of anti-COP. In Belém, parallel summits Cúpula dos Povos (The People’s Summit) and Cop do Povo will host social movements building an alternative vision. Where official COP prioritizes numbers and targets, the organizers of the parallel summits claim to prioritize lives, rights and territories, forging a future grounded in social and environmental justice.
The consensus among industry leaders is clear: COP is the process, not the destination, and climate issues must be tackled far beyond a fortnight in November. “COPs matter, but culture moves faster,” says Solitaire Townsend, co-founder of change agency Futerra. “The real transformation happens when designers, storytellers and entrepreneurs make climate part of daily desire.”
Decoding sustainability in Brazil
In Brazil, fashion supply chains are entangled with the country’s most pressing environmental and social crises. Here are the key concerns to be aware of as we head into COP30.
Brazil remains the world’s leading leather exporter, putting cattle, leather and deforestation front and center for local activists and changemakers. The leather supply chain is often linked to deforestation and broader environmental destruction, making it one of the industry’s most contentious materials. Yet, the European Union regulation designed to curb deforestation looks set to face the same “simplification” treatment as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), increasing the stakes at COP30.
Researchers estimate that cattle ranching drives between 80% to 90% of deforestation in the Amazon, with fires sparked by drought and land mismanagement quickly pushing the crucial biome toward a climate tipping point that scientists hoped was much further away. A recent Climate Rights International (CRI) report noted that these issues are not contained to the Amazon: in fact, many major international brands are implicated in the illegal deforestation, forced labor and Indigenous land theft through their leather supply chains.
“Demand for leather, cotton and viscose fuels deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado, two interconnected biomes essential for climate stability,” says Fashion Revolution Brazil’s Luglio.
The local fashion industry’s engagement with these issues remains low, however. Earlier this month, the Brazilian arm of campaigning non-profit Fashion Revolution released the latest edition of its Fashion Transparency Index, evaluating 60 major fashion brands operating in Brazil based on their public disclosure of climate commitments, emissions data and worker protections. The index revealed that 80% of Brazilian brands have no public, time-bound zero-deforestation commitments for even one key material, despite shifts in land use and agriculture accounting for approximately 75% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions
If the Amazon is the earth’s lungs, the Cerrado keeps them pumping. The lesser known biome, which is second only to the Amazon, acts as a sponge, absorbing rainwater and slowly releasing it into rivers and aquifers feeding the Amazon basin.
But Brazil is also the world’s largest cotton exporter, an industry that contributes to the decimation of the Cerrado through land grabs and pesticide-heavy monocultures. “Agribusiness models based on heavy pesticide use damage ecosystems while harming the very communities that grow the cotton,” explains Pinheiro Dias.
Deforestation in the Cerrado will have a prime spot on the agenda at COP30, when Brazil plans to launch a series of initiatives making it more profitable to restore degraded parts of the Cerrado than to clear its forests.
Indigenous peoples, Quilombola communities, riverside populations and smallholder farmers play a critical role in protecting and regenerating Brazil’s biomes. Brazil’s 1988 Constitution legally guarantees these communities the right to own and manage their ancestral lands and make their own decisions about how they live. However, these protections often aren’t enforced in practice, leaving communities vulnerable to land grabs and exploitation, with oil drilling, mining, illegal logging, organized crime and agribusiness encroaching on their territories.
For global fashion brands, supply chain due diligence must extend beyond simply tracking deforestation rates. Indigenous rights advocates say brands should also ensure their suppliers obtain free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) — which guarantees communities the right to say “yes” or “no” to projects affecting their lands before they begin — and develop equitable partnerships that recognize and compensate Indigenous knowledge about sustainable practices. Without these protections, fashion brands risk profiting from materials sourced through land theft and environmental destruction, while the communities most effective at forest preservation receive nothing and face displacement.
“Deforestation directly impacts those who supply fibers, seeds and knowledge, the very foundations of sustainable fashion, yet the most vulnerable,” Pinheiro Dias says.
For Indigenous peoples, women, Black people, peripheral communities and immigrants from other Latin American countries that make up much of Brazil’s raw material supply chains, the climate implications of fashion production is a double blow. Firstly, they sit primarily in Tier 4, the part of the supply chain with the least visibility and the most direct environmental impact. “The end of the supply chain is the most vulnerable link, with risks of precarious work or work analogous to slavery,” says Monayna Pinheiro, a sustainable fashion designer, researcher and lecturer in São Paulo. Secondly, she adds, the areas they live and operate in are among the most vulnerable to the climate crisis and extreme weather events, which are exacerbated by the supply chains they work in. “The climate crisis deeply affects the health and safety of those on the production end.”
Despite Brazil’s most vulnerable workers being those who face direct exposure to — and loss of income from — extreme climate events, Fashion Revolution’s Fashion Transparency Index found 65% of Brazilian brands scored zero on just transition, the lowest across all categories. Not one brand disclosed adaptation investments for suppliers. According to 2024 research from the Business Human Rights Resource Centre, over three-quarters of fashion brands source from “high-risk” countries like Brazil, yet only 8% disclose forced labor risks across supply chain tiers. The data gap is the story: brands show little transparency around just transition investments, which ultimately suggests they’re not making them.
Accountability remains impossible without basic disclosure. The Fashion Transparency Index found that 4% of the 60 brands analyzed scored zero on climate transparency, while 80% scored less than half of the available points. Only 23% disclose raw material origins — the supply chain stage where deforestation and labor abuses concentrate. “Without knowing who made your clothes and where materials came from, it’s impossible to hold brands accountable,” says Monayna Pinheiro.
Brazilian fashion supply chains are also hard to trace due to intentional opacity across multiple countries and intermediaries. For example, cattle can pass through multiple farms in a term CRI calls “cattle laundering”, before reaching slaughterhouses, while cotton from farms linked to deforestation often moves through Asian manufacturers across Bangladesh and Indonesia.
The COP30 agenda
While fashion is unlikely to dominate the headlines emerging from COP30, the industry is deeply connected to the summit’s six themes and 30 goals, from tripling the use of renewable energy and moving away from fossil fuels, to making farming more resilient and sustainable, and ensuring fair, inclusive transitions.
The summit’s official Thematic Days run from November 10 to 21. A few fashion-adjacent highlights include: adaptation and circular economy (November 10-11); justice and workers (November 12-13); energy and finance (November 14-15); forests and Indigenous communities (November 17-18); and agriculture and women’s participation (November 19-20). Alongside the official agenda, COP30 will host multiple platforms for knowledge exchange between local, national and international brands. Highlights include: a week-long showcase of Amazonian fashion brands and events from Brazil Eco Fashion Week, at Solar da Beira next to Ver o Peso Market (November 14-20); the Sociobioeconomy Fashion Show, at Casa ComBio, Combu Island (November 13); and Fashion Revolution Brazil’s Green Claims, Real Harms event, at COP30 Blue Zone, Side Event Room 8 (November 20, 11.30am-1pm).
Growing frustration with the slow and bureaucratic COP process is putting increased pressure on COP30 to deliver tangible change, as COP30 CEO Ana Toni noted in a recent interview with Brazilian television channel Canal Gov. “We have been negotiating for 30 years. The entire legal framework, the targets — all of this has already been agreed,” she said. “What we need now is to accelerate implementation.” COP30’s structure reflects this: the first week focuses on technical negotiations, while during the second week, ministers arrive to finalize agreements.
Here are the high-level negotiations on the COP30 agenda with wide-reaching consequences for fashion:
The global stocktake: Completed at COP28, the global stocktake was a comprehensive assessment of where the world stands collectively on climate action. It concluded that countries need to transition away from fossil fuels, triple renewable energy capacity and double energy efficiency by 2030. These findings are meant to inform each country’s individual action plans (NDCs). COP30 must turn COP28’s conclusions into an implementation plan.
National climate plans (NDCs): Every country must submit updated action plans for 2035 that show greater ambition than previous commitments. So far, most countries are worryingly behind schedule in submitting these. These national frameworks will determine the regulations fashion must navigate, and whether the industry receives targeted support for decarbonization. But there are concerns that fashion will be “left out” of these strategies entirely, says Monayna Pinheiro.
Decarbonization: Fashion’s material dependence on fossil fuels remains conspicuous and continued oil expansion is keeping the industry locked in. Polyester, polyamide, elastane — contemporary fashion’s backbone — all derive from petrochemicals. GreenWith Studio founder Mary Fellowes identifies “the need for an urgent green transition in textile, yarn and fiber manufacturing, right back to the biochemical inputs”.
Mobilizing money: Following last year’s disappointing $300 billion commitment, countries will work on a roadmap to reach $1.3 trillion annually through development bank reforms and innovative financing. Fashion needs access to this climate finance to decarbonize supply chains and help smaller suppliers meet sustainability targets.
Forests meet finance: Brazil’s Amazon will serve as the perfect backdrop for Minister of Finance Fernando Haddad to propose the Tropical Forest Forever Facility — a $125 billion fund rewarding forest conservation in tropical countries by 2026. For fashion, this directly implicates raw materials sources and the workers harvesting them, particularly during the thematic days from November 17 to 18, which will focus on forests and Indigenous communities. “We need to see strong agreements on fossil fuels, finance and forests,” says Ruth MacGilp, fashion campaign manager at Action Speaks Louder. “This includes an explicit transition pathway away from fossil fuels, and clarity on how finance will be mobilized from the biggest polluters for adaptation, loss and damages.”
Just transition: Moving away from fossil fuels must protect workers. COP30 negotiators will decide on a proposed UNFCCC framework — the Belém Action Mechanism — that ensures governments and companies put people first when making climate plans, including job retraining and economic diversification. MacGilp is blunt about the industry’s expectations: “Multi-stakeholder agreements like the UN Fashion Charter have so far failed to hold brands accountable. Targets without teeth are meaningless, so we need to see brands embrace clear measures for accountability and in particular finance mechanisms.”
Gender action plan: The enhanced Lima Work Programme on Gender was renewed for 10 years at COP29, with a new gender action plan to be adopted at COP30. With women making up the majority of garment workers globally, gender-responsive climate action is essential to ensuring fashion’s transition doesn’t disproportionately harm its workforce.
A rare stage for voices from the forest
For fashion executives, COP30 offers unprecedented knowledge exchange opportunities with communities leading innovations in regenerative production, including Indigenous voices. “COP30 carries a call for global mutirão — a coordinated, collective effort,” explains Lindita Xhaferi-Salihu, global climate action sector engagement lead at UNFCCC. “For fashion, this means moving beyond isolated initiatives to embrace deeper collaboration across the entire value chain. Success depends on co-creating solutions that are locally relevant and socially just.”
Structural inequality has historically pushed Amazonian and Indigenous designers to the margins, explains Pinheiro Dias. “Historially, the Amazon has been cast as a storeroom of raw materials, imagined as exotic and ahistorical, rather than recognized as a territory of creative power in its own right.” But, ahead of COP30, local designers have been preparing to leverage the spotlight.
“COP30 is a chance for imagining other possible paths for fashion and for the forest economy,” explains Sioduhi Waíkhᵾn, founder of Sioduhi Studio and member of the Pira-tapuya community from the Amazon’s Alto Rio Negro region (and part of 2025’s Vogue Business 100 Innovators class). Waíkhᵾn weaves traditional Amazonian materials and Indigenous knowledge into contemporary design, creating socioeconomic opportunities for local communities that enable intergenerational knowledge exchange, the continuation of traditions and the further advancement of regenerative practices. “I look to my origins and understand them as technologies that can contribute to sustainable practices, connecting tradition and innovation,” he says.
“For us, sustainability is not a concept; it is a lived experience,” says Rodrigo Tremembé, an Indigenous designer from northeastern Brazil, whose people protect and defend the Caatinga biome. “It’s knowing the time of the harvest, respect for what has spirit. Sustainable fashion still has much to learn from this relationship of reciprocity.”
For Normando designers Normando and Contente, Amazonian creators hold a visionary mindset. “There’s a unique combination of forest and city,” they explain. “We have learned to work in community, with complete respect, in an almost organic way, as if the forest were an extension of ourselves.”
One example is Seiva Amazon Design, which produces biojewellery from native rubber and plant fiber through decentralized production in women-led communities. “Our production is completely dependent on nature — the extraction of native latex follows a natural seasonal cycle,” explains founder Lídia Abrahim. Likewise, Belém brand Normando has developed bacterial dyes using microorganisms harvested from the Amazon River, with their latest collection featuring Amazonian rubber-coated linen — both processes fully patented by them.
Yet, climate disruption threatens those working most carefully with natural systems. “We now have severe droughts that dry rivers and weaken rubber trees,” Abrahim says. “The drying makes travel difficult — often the only access to the communities we work with.”
Some national brands are demonstrating what equitable partnership can look like at scale. Brazilian sustainable beauty-brand Natura works with over 10,000 Amazonian families conserving two million hectares of forest while supplying 46 sociobiodiversity bioactives across their portfolio.
However, the critical question is: who captures value from Amazonian innovation, and who bears the ongoing risk? Pinheiro Dias is explicit about requirements of how to build authentic relationships: “Build long-term, horizontal partnerships with artisans, farmers and Indigenous communities. Above all, recognize Indigenous knowledge as fundamental to a viable future — not as a reservoir of raw materials or aesthetic inspiration.”
“We hope that with COP30, the Amazon will be seen not only as landscape scenery, or an exotic place, but with the full authority that belongs to those of us who live here, speaking from our place of origin,” reiterate Normando and Contente.
Brazil is coordinating the largest Indigenous participation in COP history: 3,000 Indigenous people are expected, including 1,000 in official negotiations, far exceeding the previous record of 350. Brazil will also advocate for Indigenous peoples and other traditional communities to receive 20% of the Tropical Forests Forever Fund. Currently, just 1% of climate funding reaches Indigenous territories.
“My hope is that COP30 in Belém will deliver more than declarations, that it will model participatory governance, not just government-to-government negotiation,” says Samata Pattinson, founder of cultural sustainability firm Black Pearl. “If citizens, Indigenous leaders and creative industries are part of policy formation rather than side events, COP30 could redefine what inclusive climate diplomacy looks like.”
This article was supported by Susanne Pinheiro Dias.
