Global fiber production surged to 132 million tonnes in 2024, driving emissions up 20 percent since 2019. While polyester continues to dominate, verified sourcing and corporate accountability are gaining traction — but the clock is ticking to scale progress.
The textile world has just been handed both cause for alarm and for cautious optimism. According to the new Textile Exchange’s 2025 Materials Market Report, global fiber output hit a record of 132 million tonnes in 2024, up from about 125 million tonnes in 2023. That uptick, largely driven by virgin fossil-based synthetics — above all polyester — has produced a corresponding rise in greenhouse gas emissions. Yet across the same terrain, sustainability reporting, certified sourcing, and promises of reform are growing, if not yet at the pace needed to meet climate goals.
Record production and its climate impact
Global fiber production has more than doubled since 2000, rising by approximately 34 million tonnes since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015. Today, the volume translates into around four tonnes of fiber produced every second. Polyester dominates, now making up 59 percent of global output, of which 88 percent comes from fossil feedstocks. Recycled polyester rose in absolute numbers, from about 8.9 million tonnes in 2023 to 9.3 million tonnes in 2024, but its market share slipped slightly as virgin production outpaced it.
The broader emissions footprint has followed this upward curve. Textile Exchange’s Climate+ Dashboard shows that greenhouse gas emissions tied to raw material and fiber production for apparel, home textiles, and footwear rose 20 percent between 2019 and 2024. In just the past year, from 2023 to 2024, emissions increased six percent. Polyester alone accounts for about 43 percent of the sector’s total emissions impact.
Cotton remains the second most produced fiber, though its share has dipped to 19 percent. Other natural fibers like mohair and wool have gained certification traction, with half of mohair now produced under Textile Exchange’s Responsible Mohair Standard. Manmade cellulosic fibers (MMCFs) show progress too: two-thirds now come from certified or controlled feedstock. But even with these advances, textile-to-textile recycling continues to stagnate at less than one percent worldwide, underscoring how little discarded clothing finds its way back into fiber production.
Beth Jensen, Chief Impact Officer at Textile Exchange, summed up the urgency: “It’s now nearly 10 years since the Paris Agreement, when countries around the world committed to trying to keep global temperatures below 2°C and ideally below 1.5°C. Since then, the data shows that greenhouse gas emissions from raw material and fiber production within the apparel, home textiles, and footwear industry have continued to significantly rise. Each year, global fiber production volumes increase to record levels. There has been progress, but the time we have to transform our systems is running out. It’s clear that decisive action is needed.”
Verified sourcing, corporate reporting, and the scale challenge
If the numbers point to escalating impact, they also highlight areas of progress. The Textile Exchange Materials Benchmark, which tracks the raw materials choices of reporting companies, shows steady shifts toward certified and lower-impact fibers.
In 2025, 423 brands and retailers participated in the benchmark, a jump from just 57 when the program began in 2015. Among this group, the share of certified raw materials climbed from 58 percent in 2023 to 67 percent in 2024. Virgin fossil-based polyester use fell from 637,388 tonnes in 2023 to 560,029 tonnes in 2024. Companies implementing measures to reduce impacts on climate and nature during raw material production rose from 77 percent to 81 percent, while adoption of formal climate targets increased from 85 percent to 88 percent.
Certified sourcing is making inroads: 34 percent of global cotton is now certified, two-thirds of MMCFs come from certified feedstock, and nearly half of all mohair meets recognized standards. These figures are not trivial. Verified sourcing builds accountability into a system where much of the supply chain remains opaque and where country of origin for many natural fibers remains unknown. Still, the challenge is scaling these shifts fast enough to offset the surge in conventional fiber production.
Claire Bergkamp, Textile Exchange’s CEO, emphasized the need for momentum: “The data we’ve released today makes clear the scale of the challenges ahead, but it also gives us a strong foundation for action. I’m encouraged to see real progress in our community as companies that are reporting are increasing their use of certified raw materials and reducing their reliance on virgin fossil-based polyester. The challenge now is to take this progress to scale.”
Scaling, however, requires more than voluntary uptake. Textile Exchange has committed to a 45 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from material production by 2030, using 2019 as a baseline. To reach that, industry transformation must accelerate: deeper investment in textile-to-textile recycling, sharper curbs on virgin fossil polyester, stronger traceability, and systemic incentives or regulations to align fashion’s material production with climate thresholds. Until those shifts take root, each tonne of fiber — produced at a rate of four every second — brings the industry further from its climate goals.
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