Are Better Cotton’s climate targets realistic?

LONDON – Better Cotton recently announced it has launched four new impact targets covering soil health, women’s empowerment, pesticides and sustainable livelihoods. The targets, the cotton standard said, will enable it to, “measure our progress in what is a defining decade for climate change, biodiversity and social sustainability.”

The most notable aspect of the targets where climate is concerned in Better Cotton’s strategy relates to ‘climate change mitigation’. Here, Better Cotton says it has set out to, “reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent per tonne of Better Cotton lint produced by the end of the decade.”