Leather Cluster Barcelona, together with 25 other leather organisations from around the world, signs and supports the Leather Manifesto, a document presented on the occasion of the United Nations Climate Change Conference to highlight the positive contribution of natural materials such as leather in limiting the climate impact of consumer materials.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) takes place from 6 to 18 November in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) and its main objective is to guarantee the full implementation of the Paris Agreement and to take actions that curb the climate emergency. This conference has been held every year since 1995 and brings together representatives of the countries that have signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international environmental treaty that addresses climate change.

Leather Cluster Barcelona and the other representatives of the world leather industry who have signed the manifesto assert the key role of natural materials such as leather as Circular Economy and Sustainable Fashion articles in tackling the challenges of climate change.

Leather is a by-product, a consequence of the consumption of meat, the main source of protein for more than 90% of the world’s population. The leather industry recovers and recycles this by-product so that it does not become waste and gives it new value in elegant, noble products that are useful to society. The leather sector is a key player in the circular economy.

The choices we make as consumers and, in particular, the materials used in the products we buy have a significant impact on the environment.

The world needs materials that are sustainable, renewable, recyclable and biodegradable, such as leather, and needs to reduce its unnecessary dependence on fossil-fuel-based plastic materials. Leather does not create microplastics and does not remain for centuries in landfills.

The synthetic materials that seek to imitate and replace leather are made from plastic and therefore from compounds derived from petroleum, a limited natural resource that, beyond the negative environmental impact of its production process, is costly and complicated to recycle and has very poor biodegradability.

If we want to prevent further damage to the planet, we must learn to make the best use of the resources available. It should not be acceptable that we are wasting large volumes of a versatile, natural and readily available raw material. Every year, approximately 120 million hides from meat destined for food, equivalent to roughly 600 million square metres of leather, are thrown into landfill as waste.

If we did not replace leather articles and accessories with synthetic alternatives derived from fossil fuels, and if we could recycle all these hides from the food industry and turn them into leather, we would cut almost 15 million metric tonnes of CO₂ emissions. In this process, we are losing the opportunity to shoe more than 2,500 million pairs of feet. That is 33% of the world’s population whom we could provide with shoes made of leather, a natural, recycled and reused material.

We call on people to stop and think. To decide for themselves whether they really believe that plastics are better for our environment than natural, renewable and biodegradable materials. The leather industry contributes to responsible and sustainable consumption by producing durable consumer goods: a leather article can last a lifetime. Moreover, it has a far greater capacity for biodegradation than any of its alternatives. Leather is, therefore, a benchmark of the circular economy and of sustainable fashion.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting and transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving forward the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector. The cluster is an accredited body within the Catalonia Clusters programme and has the support of Acció.