A new round of low-carbon textile development model

The global value chain of textiles is driven by buyers. China's textile industry is at the low end of the value chain and subject to international buyers. The latter, which obtains more value, should bear the cost of carbon reduction. Therefore, the low-carbon economy needs to have a fair environment and an effective incentive and restraint mechanism. It is necessary to internalize low-carbon social costs. Otherwise, the low-carbon vision is just an illusion.

The textile and garment industry is the first and most comprehensive global practice industry in China. This has enabled China Textile to undertake the largest textile processing and manufacturing in the world, while manufacturing, transportation and urban life are important sources of carbon emissions. The year 2011 is the first year of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”. It is also the starting point of the key decade for China to build a strong textile country. Textile must explore new development models and transform growth patterns in a new round of development.

As a responsible big country, China promised to achieve 40%-45% reduction in carbon emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 compared with 2005. China's textile industry faces the dual challenges of promoting economic growth and reducing carbon emissions.

The developed countries have already gone through the stage of industrialization and urbanization, while the developing and underdeveloped countries are in the initial stage of industrialization. Most of the labor-intensive industries and energy-intensive manufacturing industries are in these countries. "Made in China" is a typical example. This stage of economic development and economic structure determine the high energy consumption per unit of GDP, coupled with the shortage of technology and funds, making the current situation of low carbon energy efficiency not change in a short time. While the high-tech, high value-added industrial structure of developed countries and highly developed economies have resulted in low carbon emissions per unit of GDP, per capita energy consumption is far greater than that of developing countries.

When low-carbon behavior leads to rising corporate costs and decline in profits, the market will often fail and companies will reverse their choices. At this time, high-carbon and high-energy-consuming companies will defeat low-carbon companies. The global value chain of textiles is driven by buyers. China's textile industry is at the low end of the value chain and subject to international buyers. The latter, which obtains more value, should bear the cost of carbon reduction. Therefore, the low-carbon economy needs to have a fair environment and an effective incentive and restraint mechanism. It is necessary to internalize low-carbon social costs. Otherwise, the low-carbon vision is just an illusion.

Some international people blindly criticize China’s carbon emissions and distort the status quo of China’s textile industry. Certain domestic government departments have used measures such as restricting production, reducing production capacity, and even limiting civilian energy to complete emission reduction targets. This clearly misunderstood the low-carbon economy. Real and real meaning. This not only violates the purpose of the low-carbon economy, it may also lead to the loss of development opportunities for enterprises, resulting in the opposite result of dragging social and economic development.

If the low-carbon economy is simply understood not to be carbon-reduced or carbon-less, this is obviously a misconception. The carbon emissions of early humans were much lower than the greenhouse gases released by forest fires and volcanic eruptions in the natural world. The invention of the steam engine provided the impetus for the industry, boosting the innovation and application of textile technologies such as Jeanne Spinning Machine, and thermal power generation. Make humans create material wealth with higher carbon efficiency. Even now, most of the existing technologies and methods for using energy are still the most efficient without more advanced alternatives.

The question is not whether to use carbon, but how to rationally use carbon and maintain and restore the carbon balance of the environment. The solution is not to deindustrialization, not to stop the plant, but to find alternative sources of energy, technologies, and methods. The key is fairness among the developed and undeveloped countries and regions, the equality of the same generation and the equality between the previous generation and the next generation, that is, the sustainable development of all mankind. This is the essence of a low-carbon economy.

The low-carbon economy is an economic development model that aims to achieve high efficiency, high efficiency, high growth, and sustainable development on the basis of low energy consumption, low pollution, and low emissions. Through clean energy and low-carbon technologies, systems, and management innovations, they effectively resolve energy and resource constraints, and solve the dilemmas of survival and development, equity, and efficiency.

The low-carbon economy is a development philosophy and a fundamental change in the methods of human survival. It needs to build a low-carbon system: low-carbon socio-economic relations among countries and countries in the world, industrial relations from production and circulation to consumption, and natural Carbon cycle system to production and life. Low-carbon economy also needs low-carbon mechanisms: carbon emission and carbon offset, carbon trading, carbon identification, internalization of carbon costs, carbon consumption, carbon consumption, carbon footprint, and Other market-based emission reduction incentive constraints.

Therefore, low carbon does not mean that there is no carbon emission or less carbon emissions, not to mention non-consumption. The low carbon economy needs carbon balance. The purpose and starting point of low carbon is development. The key to low carbon in development is the development mode and economy. Structural innovation.

Low-carbon textile is based on the net low-carbon emission technology innovation by optimizing the structure of the textile industry, reforming the textile process, creating low-carbon new products and expanding new areas of low-carbon textiles, advocating low-carbon lifestyles and consumption concepts, and textile materials and Recycling of products to achieve a high-efficiency, high-quality, high value-added sustainable growth model of the textile industry.

The basis of low-carbon textiles is new energy development, energy efficient application and emission reduction technologies. The way out of low-carbon textiles is the development of low-carbon products and low-carbon markets. The core of low-carbon textile is innovation, including technological innovation, institutional innovation and management innovation. Low-carbon textiles reflect the changes in structural optimization and development methods. Low-carbon textiles should not only open up new development paths for the industry itself, but also promote global low-carbon economy with new materials, new products and new applications.

Developed countries have already passed the development period of the textile industry. The textile industry occupies high value-added end of R&D, retail, design, brand marketing, etc. The service industry is the mainstay, and the carbon emission per unit of production value is certainly less. On the one hand, China Textile has to assume the responsibility of reducing emissions, shifting to the high-end economy through industrial upgrading; on the other hand, it must strive for the right to development, survival, and carbon emission.

China's textile carbon emissions are large, but carbon efficiency is very low. To solve the problem of carbon efficiency, that is, high output per unit of carbon emissions, high added value, and high productivity cannot be achieved by reducing the total surface area. A one-size-fits-all or mandatory power-reduction restriction will not only fail to improve the carbon performance of China's textile industry, but will, on the contrary, lead to backward productivity and inefficiency, and may even weaken the overall competitiveness of the industry, reduce the ability to support low-carbon economic and technological innovation, and provide carbon offsets.

The practice of low-carbon textiles requires innovative thinking. First of all, low-carbon is both a cost and a benefit. It requires both input and output. It is both an industrial challenge and a market opportunity. Low-carbon textile will create new products, new industries and new markets, and will create a better environment for development and enhance the company's content.

Second, we need to re-examine and even subvert the traditional thinking of textiles. Why must deep processing, shallow processing can achieve high added value, to achieve excellent quality? Why must the process be long, and can the short process replace or even achieve better efficiency and effectiveness? Why do we have high targets? The inconsistency of dyeing and the non-reproducibility of anti-mechanism are often used as unique expression methods. Why must be homogeneous mass? Colorless cotton and natural mineral plant dyes have less chromatograms and can be used as high-quality and pure natural symbols. If the color of natural dyes is uneven or discolored, these are often considered to have quality problems, but they are used by some fashion brands to demonstrate their connotation and unique taste.

China's textile industry has many competitive advantages. It should maximize its own advantages and make full use of the advantages of the world's resources and other countries in order to fully reflect the comparative advantages of the Chinese economy, reduce resource consumption, reduce waste in production and logistics distribution, and increase carbon. effectiveness.