Pakistan has become the third country in the world to join the Apparel and Textile Transformation Initiative (ATTI), as the Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) formally committed to establishing a national chapter of the global manufacturer-led sustainability platform, following Bangladesh and Turkiye.
The announcement was made during London Climate Action Week 2026, where industry leaders, brands, manufacturers, investors and development partners gathered to discuss climate finance and the long-term transformation of the global apparel and textile sector. Pakistan’s inclusion extends ATTI’s model of nationally rooted but globally coordinated manufacturer-led action to a third major sourcing hub, after the initiative was launched in 2025 by the International Apparel Federation (IAF) and the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) to help manufacturers cut emissions without waiting on slower, government-led climate frameworks.
Under the agreement, PRGMEA and ATTI will jointly develop a Pakistan Transformation Plan covering decarbonisation, energy efficiency, water stewardship, climate finance, resource efficiency and sustainable manufacturing. ATTI said it would support PRGMEA across a full scope of work including a needs assessment, collaborative solutions design and a plan contextualised for Pakistan’s garment and textile sector, while PRGMEA has committed institutional resources, staff capacity and member engagement to drive implementation. The initiative places particular emphasis on providing practical, scalable solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises, which form the backbone of Pakistan’s export-driven garment industry.
The stakes for Pakistan’s textile sector are considerable. Textiles are the country’s largest export product and account for roughly 40 percent of its total labour force, according to Pakistan’s Board of Investment. Pakistan ranked as the world’s ninth-largest textile exporter in 2024, shipping $19.5 billion worth of material, according to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity. Yet the sector is also the country’s second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after cement, with estimates ranging from 5 to nearly 9 percent of national emissions, or roughly 8.1 million tonnes of carbon annually.
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PRGMEA has a long-standing relationship with the IAF, having hosted the federation’s World Fashion Convention in Lahore in 2019, and former PRGMEA chairman Ijaz A. Khokhar continues to serve on the IAF board. Dr Muhammad Ayyaz Uddin, convener of PRGMEA’s Decarbonisation Committee, said joining ATTI marked an important milestone that would accelerate sustainability efforts and strengthen collaboration across the industry. PRGMEA North Zone chairman Imran Salahuddin said the partnership would improve the competitiveness of Pakistani manufacturers by promoting innovation and practical decarbonisation solutions, reinforcing the country’s standing as a preferred global sourcing destination.
Pakistan’s move comes as international buyers increasingly tie sourcing decisions to climate-linked compliance systems, pushing manufacturers toward renewable energy adoption, biodiesel and biochar integration, virtual power purchase agreements and circularity initiatives. The Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Association welcomed Pakistan’s inclusion in ATTI but separately urged the Punjab government to revise its industrial estate policy, arguing existing regulations are slowing industrial relocation and undermining export competitiveness.
ATTI’s pilot countries, Bangladesh and Turkiye, have spent the past year building out national transformation plans through their own manufacturer associations. In Bangladesh, the BGMEA and BKMEA lead the ATTI chapter with support from the ATTI Global Council, part of a broader push that includes a $6.6 billion investment gap identified for halving the sector’s emissions by 2030. That gap illustrates the scale of the financing challenge facing all three ATTI countries: cutting emissions across labour-intensive, energy-hungry garment manufacturing requires capital most mills in developing sourcing hubs do not have on hand, making blended finance and buyer co-investment central to whether transformation plans move from paper to factory floors.
Pakistan’s entry signals that the manufacturer-led model is gaining traction as a template other major sourcing countries may look to replicate as global brands tighten climate and compliance expectations across supply chains. With Vietnam, India and Cambodia also facing mounting pressure from buyers to demonstrate verifiable emissions reductions, ATTI’s organisers have said they expect further national chapters to follow as the initiative moves out of its pilot phase and toward wider regional coverage across South and Southeast Asia’s garment-producing economies.