Textile industry to do more to tackle climate change

China's textile industry, a sector that provides jobs to over 27.15 million people in both production and sales, will deploy more resources in green technology and sustainable development to tackle climate change, a senior industry official said.

The future fourth industrial revolution will be based on green technologies plus artificial intelligence. The green industrial revolution means manufacturers can solve issues such as new energy and recycled materials via technological innovations and sustainable productivity development, said Sun Ruizhe, president of the China National Textile and Apparel Council.

"Tackling climate change is not only a new opportunity for the global textile industry, but also a direction for shared responsibility across industries, he said, adding with the global green transformation on, green manufacturing and related education have drawn surging attention at home and abroad.

The council officially signed a document with the UN Convention on Climate Change to actively lead the voice of global climate governance in the fashion industry in 2018, and launched the Climate Innovation 2030 action in 2019. After a year of hard work, Sun said the participation of China's fashion industry has been meaningful and constructive.

Eager to raise a Chinese voice on the global stage, Sun led a delegation to participate in the 25th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Madrid in December, with participants from about 200 countries and regions. He also made speeches during branch meetings.

The conference is an arm of the United Nations that is responsible for implementing the Paris Agreement and UNFCCC. Notably, under the 2015 Paris Agreement, participating nations pledged to keep the global temperature rise between 1.5-2 degrees Celsius from 2005 levels.

Qiao Yanjin, director of the China Textile Information Center, said many countries' demand for products made by clean energy and green materials also can help in coping with climate change, achieving emission targets and saving energy costs for their residents.