The Energy Footprint of China’s Textile Industry: Perspectives from Decoupling and Decomposition Analysis

Abstract

Abstract:Energy is the essential input for operations along the industrial manufacturing chain of textiles. China's textile industry is facing great pressure on energy consumption reduction. This paper presents an analysis of the energy footprint (EFP) of China's textile industry from 1991 to 2015. The relationship between EFP and economic growth in the textile industry was investigated with a decoupling index approach. The logarithmic mean Divisia index approach was applied for decomposition analysis on how changes in key factors influenced the EFP of China's textile industry. Results showed that the EFP of China's textile industry increased from 41.1 Mt in 1991 to 99.6 Mt in 2015. EFP increased fastest in the period of 1996-2007, with an average annual increasing rate of 7.7 percent, especially from 2001 to 2007 (8.5 percent). Manufacture of textile sector consumed most (from 58 percent to 76 percent) of the energy among the three sub-sectors, as it has lots of energy-intensive procedures. EFP and economic growth were in a relative decoupling state for most years of the researched period. Their relationship showed a clear tendency toward decoupling. Industrial scale was the most important factor that led to the increase of EFP, while decreasing energy intensity contributed significantly to reducing the EFP. The promoting effect of the factors was larger than the inhibiting effect on EFP in most years from 1991 to 2015.

The environmental price of fast fashion

“…The fashion industry's high carbon footprint comes from high energy use and is influenced by the source of the energy used. For example, in China, textile manufacturing depends on coal-based energy and, as a result, has a 40% larger carbon footprint than textiles made in Turkey or Europe 42,46 . High energy demands and CO 2 emissions are associated with textile manufacturing and consumer use 42,47,48 (namely, laundering), as well shipping when air freight is used 25,49 .…”

Impact of Competitive Capabilities on Sustainable Manufacturing Applications in Romanian SMEs from the Textile Industry

“…From a managerial perspective, the present research offers policy makers and managers a frame of reference to boost SMP in the context of SMEs, not only to patronise managers' and employees' environmental responsibility towards various pressures from customers, suppliers and public media but also to encourage their engagement in developing sustainable programs. Therefore, increasing managers' awareness, knowledge and specialised training concerning sustainability issues in SMEs will be of great importance for the textile industry [62,63]. Furthermore, Romanian environmental authorities need to establish an institutional framework and organizational capacity that reflect SMEs' variations and feedback to enforce the implementation of environmental regulations, so that, accessing, monitoring and reporting actual environmental data by the managers of SMEs will no longer be a difficult process that is scattered among numerous authorities.…”

Factorial Decomposition of the Energy Footprint of the Shaoxing Textile Industry

“…In addition, it is used to determine the contribution of different influencing factors to changes in the total amount of indicators. In recent years, the LMDI has been widely applied, as well as continuously developed and optimized [9,44]. In the present study, LMDI was used to decompose the EFP of Shaoxing's textile industry.…”

“…Decoupling is a term that refers to the status when the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth begins to break up [39]. Decoupling can be further divided into two/three/six/eight subcategories [38], and all were used in earlier studies [9,[40][41][42]. Compared with other methods, the 8-min state classification method is more detailed and helpful for the analysis of the study.…”

“…China is the world's largest textile product manufacturer and exporter. The textile industry is a traditional pillar industry in China, an important civilian production industry and an industry that creates new international advantages [8][9][10]. China's cotton textile spindles account for half the world's total, while China's textile trade volume accounts for one third of the world's total [8].…”