  We explore the necessary conditions for 1-form symmetries to emerge in the
long-distance limit when they are explicitly broken at short distances. A
minimal requirement is that there exist operators which become topological at
long distances and that these operators have non-trivial correlation functions.
These criteria are obeyed when the would-be emergent symmetry is spontaneously
broken, or is involved in 't Hooft anomalies. On the other hand, confinement,
i.e. a phase with unbroken 1-form symmetry, is nearly incompatible with the
emergence of 1-form symmetries. We comment on some implications of our results
for QCD as well as the idea of Higgs-confinement continuity.
