On October 25, at the opening ceremony of the 11th Jiangsu (Shengze) Textile Expo, China Textile Information Center and the People’s Government of Shengze Town, Wujiang District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, jointly released the “White Paper on Climate Action in Shengze Textile Industry” (hereinafter referred to as “White Paper”), which systematically reviews the development of Shengze textile industry and the progress of green low-carbon development. The White Paper sets the goal that the local textile industry will achieve a carbon emission peak in 2029 with a peak level of 12.15 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, and achieve carbon neutrality in 2058, controlling carbon emissions below 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Shengze Town aims to build a modern textile industry featuring high efficiency, green, recycling, and low carbon to achieve high-quality and sustainable development.

Shengze town is in the center of the Yangtze River Delta and Taihu Lake area and in the core area of the demonstration zone for integrated ecological and green development in the Yangtze River Delta region. The town is an important global textile industrial base, owning a complete industrial chain from raw materials to brands.

The White Paper analyzed that the energy consumption of the Shengze textile industry is transforming to a high-efficient, low-carbon, and clean pattern.

Firstly, the total energy consumption maintains a slow growth. From 2015 to 2019, the total energy consumption of textile enterprises above the designated size increased by 140,300 tons of standard coal, with an average annual growth rate of 1.93%. Affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the industry’s economic development and energy consumption dropped significantly in 2020. Along with the industry’s economic development recovery in 2021, energy consumption improved to 1.84 million tons of standard coal, which was still lower than the level in 2019.

In order to further promote the green and low-carbon development of the Shengze textile industry, the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC) set up a sustainable innovation office in Shengze, building a world-class demonstration zone of climate action in the textile industry.

Secondly, energy efficiency improves gradually. Shengze Town has exercised better control over the amount and intensity of energy consumption since 2015. And the overall energy consumption intensity of the textile industry has maintained a downward trend. The energy consumption intensity of textile enterprises above the designated size was 0.34 tons of standard coal / million yuan in 2021, which declined 14.85% compared with 2015.

Thirdly, the energy consumption structure is optimized, and the energy consumption is accelerating the transition from primary energy to secondary energy. The total amount of coal consumption in Shengze dropped to 560,300 tons of standard coal in 2021, down by 13 percentage points from 2015, accounting for 30.4% of the total energy consumption in the industrial cluster. And c total consumption of electricity and heat in Shengze accounted for 66.3% of the cluster’s total energy consumption, up about 9 percentage points from 2015.

It is understood that emissions from Shengze’s textile industry mainly come from electricity, raw coal, and heat consumption. From 2015 to 2021, the sum of greenhouse gas emissions from these three types of energy accounts for more than 96% of the total cluster emissions.

The White Paper puts forward that considering the actual situation and the national goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality, and the development plan of the Shengze textile industry, it is suggested that Shengze can reduce the emissions based on different application scenarios.

Under this context, the goals and path for the climate action of the Shengze textile industry are clarified. The town aims to achieve a carbon emission peak in 2029 with a peak level of 12.15 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, and achieve carbon neutrality in 2058, controlling carbon emissions below 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The White Paper points out that in order to achieve these goals, Shengze Town should develop and implement an action plan for the green and low-carbon transformation of the textile industry and build a modern textile industry system featuring high-efficiency, green, recycling and low-carbon, so as to achieve high-quality and sustainable development. It can make efforts to promote the sustainable transformation of energy consumption, build a green low-carbon industrial system, enhance green technology innovation capacity, and cultivate sustainable brands.

In order to further promote the green and low-carbon development of the Shengze textile industry, the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC) set up a sustainable innovation office in Shengze, building a world-class demonstration zone of climate action in the textile industry.