Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time, affecting agriculture, ecosystems, economies, and communities around the world.
Cotton cannot solve that challenge on its own. But as a renewable, plant-based fiber, it has characteristics that can contribute to a lower-impact textile system and more sustainable agricultural practices.
Cotton absorbs carbon dioxide as it grows, can be produced using farming practices that build soil health and store carbon, provides an alternative to fossil-based synthetic fibers, and biodegrades naturally under the right conditions.
Together, these qualities give cotton an important role in efforts to build a more sustainable and climate-resilient future.
Cotton Captures Carbon as It Grows
Like all plants, cotton removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and stores it in its biomass.
Cotton plants use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into plant material, including cellulose, which makes up the majority of the cotton fiber. In this way, atmospheric carbon becomes stored temporarily in the plant’s roots, stems, leaves, seeds, and fiber.
Some of that carbon returns to the atmosphere as plant material decomposes, but some can remain in the soil depending on how the crop and its residues are managed.
This makes farming practices especially important.
By reducing unnecessary soil disturbance, retaining crop residues, incorporating cover crops, and improving soil health, farmers can create conditions that help increase the amount of carbon stored in agricultural soils.
Building Carbon in the Soil
Soil is one of the world’s largest stores of carbon, and agricultural practices can influence how much carbon it contains.
Cotton can be grown as part of farming systems designed to build soil organic matter. Practices such as reduced tillage, crop rotation, cover cropping, residue management, and the integration of livestock where appropriate can add organic material to the soil and reduce carbon losses caused by erosion or excessive disturbance.
Healthy soils offer benefits that extend beyond carbon storage.
They can improve water infiltration and retention, support biodiversity, reduce erosion, and help crops withstand periods of drought or extreme weather.
For cotton farmers, improving soil health therefore supports both climate mitigation and their own bottom line.
A Renewable Alternative to Fossil-Based Fibers
Cotton also has an important advantage at the textile stage: It is a plant.
Many synthetic fibers, including polyester, are produced from crude oil. That process requires enormous amounts of fossil-fuel-based energy and generates pollution each step of the way.
Cotton, by contrast, is renewable natural fiber that can be grown over and over again — and rather than degrade the environment, cotton can actually help heal it (see chapter on Soil Health).
That distinction becomes increasingly important as the textile industry looks for ways to reduce its environmental footprint.
Replacing all synthetic materials with cotton is neither practical nor necessary, and every fiber has environmental impacts — even cotton. But increasing the use of renewable, natural fibers wherever possible can help diversify textile raw materials and reduce reliance on oil-based alternatives.
Reducing Persistent Microfiber Pollution
Climate change is not the only environmental challenge associated with fossil-fuel-based materials.
Synthetic textiles can release tiny plastic fibers during manufacturing, wearing, and washing. These microplastic fibers enter wastewater systems and eventually reach rivers, lakes, oceans, soil, and eventually, our food chain and our bodies.
Because cotton is composed primarily of natural cellulose, fibers released from cotton textiles can biodegrade rather than persist for centuries as microplastics.
Reducing dependence on persistent plastic-based materials is just one more way natural fibers can contribute to a healthier environment.
Biodegradability Matters
Cotton’s biodegradability becomes particularly important at the end of a product’s useful life.
Under appropriate biological conditions, natural cotton fibers can be broken down by microorganisms and returned to the soil as organic matter. Synthetic fibers, by contrast, can remain in the environment for much longer periods.
The most sustainable approach is to keep all textiles in use for as long as possible through reuse, repair, resale, and recycling. But when a cotton product can no longer be used or recycled, biodegradability provides a critical end-of-life advantage.
This makes cotton well suited to a more circular textile system in which materials are used efficiently and persistent waste is minimized.
Farming for a Changing Climate
Climate change is already affecting cotton farmers.
Higher temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, drought, flooding, and extreme weather can all influence crop productivity. As a result, researchers and farmers are developing new tools and practices to make cotton production more resilient.
These include:
- Drought- and heat-tolerant cotton varieties
- More efficient irrigation systems
- Improved soil-moisture monitoring
- Precision agriculture
- Reduced tillage
- Crop rotation
- Cover crops
- Integrated pest management
- Improved weather and climate forecasting
These practices can help farmers use water and other inputs more efficiently while protecting soil and maintaining productivity under increasingly variable conditions.
Innovation Can Reduce Cotton’s Footprint
Agricultural technology continues to improve the efficiency of cotton production.
Modern plant breeding can develop varieties better suited to drought, heat, pests, and local growing conditions. Precision agriculture can help farmers apply water, fertilizer, and crop-protection products only where (and when) they are needed. Technologies such as the ICAC Virtual Reality Cotton Training Program make knowledge transfer faster and easier, helping improved techniques spread rapidly even in rural areas.
Improved irrigation technology can minimize water loss, while better soil management can help fields retain more of that moisture and withstand dry periods.
Researchers are also studying ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with fertilizer use, machinery, energy, and other parts of cotton production.
The goal is not to claim that cotton farming has no environmental impact. It is to continually reduce that impact while maintaining the livelihoods and production systems that millions of people depend on.
Reuse and Recycling Matter, Too
Cotton’s climate story continues after the fiber leaves the field.
Extending the life of cotton products can reduce the need for new raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, and disposal.
Clothing and textiles can be repaired, reused, resold, donated, or recycled. Recycled cotton can be incorporated into new textiles and other products, helping keep valuable material in circulation for longer.
Manufacturers are also developing new technologies to recover cotton fibers and cellulose from used textiles, opening the door to more circular systems.
Using a product longer is often one of the simplest ways to reduce its environmental footprint.
Climate Mitigation and Climate Resilience
The relationship between cotton and climate change works in both directions.
Cotton agriculture can contribute to climate solutions through improved soil management, more efficient production, and increased use of renewable materials.
At the same time, cotton farmers must adapt to a changing climate.
Building healthier soils, conserving water, improving crop varieties, using technology more efficiently, and diversifying farming systems can all help make cotton production more resilient.
That resilience is particularly important because millions of people around the world depend on cotton for their livelihoods.
Cotton Is Part of the Solution
No crop, fiber, or technology can solve climate change by itself.
The challenge is too large and too complex.
But the choices society makes about agriculture, materials, energy, manufacturing, and consumption all matter.
Cotton offers several important advantages: it is renewable, plant-based, biodegradable, recyclable, and capable of being produced within farming systems that build healthier soils and use resources more efficiently.
Continued innovation can improve those benefits further.
By producing cotton more efficiently, protecting and rebuilding agricultural soils, extending the life of cotton products, and choosing renewable natural fibers where they make sense, the cotton and textile sectors can contribute to a more sustainable future.
Cotton is not the entire climate solution. But it can be part of it.