As global temperatures breach the 1.5°C threshold and climate impacts intensify across supply chains, a new report released today by Stand.earth, Oxfam in Bangladesh, and the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS) sets out first-of-its-kind, brand-specific recommendations for how global apparel companies sourcing from Bangladesh must act to support a fast, fair, and worker-centered transition away from fossil fuels. Developed through extensive consultations with garment manufacturers, worker representatives, civil society, and major international brands throughout 2025, the Roadmap exposes a widening gap between brand climate commitments and the lived realities of workers on the frontlines of climate change..
Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest apparel exporter and among the most climate-vulnerable countries globally. Despite this, the roadmap finds that brands are failing to provide meaningful support for either decarbonization or climate adaptation: Only six of 42 major fashion brands assessed in Stand.earth’s 2025 Fossil Free Fashion Scorecard reported any decarbonization financing for suppliers, and only one provided non-loan-based funding. Complicating matters, not one single brand provided clear evidence of financing or training to support climate adaptation for workers, even as factory temperatures reach 40°C and climate-related disruptions intensify..
“Brands have built enormous wealth by outsourcing production and pollution to countries like Bangladesh. Now, as the climate crisis accelerates, they are demanding rapid decarbonization without paying for it. That’s not a just transition. This report delivers a clear message to global fashion brands: Shifting the costs and risks onto suppliers and workers is climate injustice, and won’t deliver for either climate or communities. This roadmap shows how brands can step up with real financing, fair purchasing practices, and policies that protect workers,” said Rachel Kitchin, senior corporate climate Campaigner at Stand.earth.
The Roadmap identifies four systemic failures preventing a just energy transition in Bangladesh’s garment sector:
- Climate adaptation is urgent but underfunded, leaving workers exposed to heat stress, flooding, and health risks.
- Unfair purchasing practices — including short-term contracts, price squeezing, and last-minute order changes — externalize climate risk onto manufacturers and workers.
- Lack of accessible, fair financing makes decarbonization unviable for small and medium-sized factories, particularly when funding is loan-based.
- Policy and infrastructure barriers — from restrictive energy regulations to high import duties on renewables — continue to stall progress.
Without corrective action, the report warns that brand-driven climate compliance could accelerate factory closures, job losses, and consolidation, harming workers and undermining Bangladesh’s manufacturing base.
“If brands are serious about climate leadership, they must stop treating adaptation as a supplier problem. We are calling for binding brand commitments that guarantee fair pricing, ring-fenced climate funding, and income protection for workers during climate disruptions — because decarbonization that is paid for by workers is not sustainability, it is exploitation,” said Kalpona Akter, executive director at the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity.
The report also lays out a concrete, brand-focused agenda for change, calling on companies to publish and implement funded Just Energy Transition plans for their Bangladesh supply chains, including:
- Ring-fenced funding for climate adaptation that includes cooling measures, clean water access, health protections, and community-level resilience.
- Responsible purchasing practices that rebalance risk, guarantee long-term sourcing, absorb decarbonization costs into prices, and protect worker incomes during climate disruptions.
- Non-debt, grant-based and pooled financing to support renewable energy, electrification, and energy efficiency, especially for small and medium-sized suppliers.
- Policy advocacy for renewable electricity access, worker climate insurance, enforceable heat protections, and national and global pooled climate finance mechanisms.
The report concludes that if even 10 major brands sourcing from Bangladesh acted on these recommendations, it would represent a significant step toward a faster, fairer decarbonization of one of the world’s most important manufacturing hubs.
Stand.earth and its partners will continue engaging brands, policymakers, and worker representatives to push for implementation of the Roadmap’s recommendations. Brands sourcing from Bangladesh are expected to act without delay by committing financing, updating procurement policies, advocating for enabling policy, and publicly reporting progress.
