To mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement, the 2020 Climate Ambition Summit, a virtual gathering jointly hosted by the United Nations, the United Kingdom and France, was held on Dec 12.

More than 70 world leaders from across government, business and civil society laid out their commitments to tackle climate change at the summit.

In a major move for global climate action, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged in September that China would reach peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

More than 190 countries signed the Paris Agreement in 2015 in an effort to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius, preferably less than 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared with pre-industrial levels.

Jia Guide, director of the Foreign Ministry's Department of Treaty and Law, said that the summit demonstrated the lofty ambitions of global cooperation on climate work. Over the past five years, the agreement has received widespread participation, and its rule system has been gradually improved. Many individual countries have also stepped up their own efforts. China has made significant contributions to the implementation of the agreement.

Li Gao, director-general of climate change at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said that the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) will lay a solid foundation for the realization of the plan’s medium and long-term goals. China will comprehensively strengthen its policies and measures to tackle climate change by reducing carbon emissions, forcing the transformation and upgrading of its economic structure, energy structure, and industrial structure, and taking climate work as a new opportunity to develop green economy.

The Donald Trump administration announced its decision to exit the Paris Agreement in June 2017 and formally withdrew from the agreement on Nov 4. However, US President-elect Joe Biden has said Dec 12 that America will reenter the agreement after he takes office. Biden has already laid out a $2 trillion clean energy and infrastructure plan and a goal to become emissions-free by 2050.

Recently, nearly 30 countries and regions, including China, have announced goals to achieve carbon neutrality around the middle of the 21st century.

The development of a green and low-carbon economy will inevitably require the entire manufacturing industry to move towards "green manufacturing". Naturally, this will include the textile and apparel industry, which is a major carbon producer. For a long time, textile raw materials have mostly consisted synthetic fibers, which require a number of non-renewable petroleum resources. Synthetic fibers also produce a significant amount of pollution during production and are unable to be degraded after use.

Recycling textile waste is one way to reduce carbon emissions. Statistics show that recycling one ton of textile waste is the equivalent of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 3.2 tons. In addition, the development of various types of recycled environmentally-friendly textiles is key to fundamentally changing the development of the entire industry.

Recycled textiles have become popular in overseas markets in recent years. The EU has a long-standing ban on textile waste and has required member states to start recycling textiles from 2025. In China, recycled textiles have become increasingly common over the past two years.

At present, local recycled textiles are mainly exported to Europe and America. Many manufacturers are still optimistic about market prospects despite the global economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Orders for recycled textiles have rebounded in the second half of the year.

A number of foreign clothing brands have announced that they will use 100 percent recycled fabrics in the future.

Adidas has said that all their products will use recycled polyester fiber by 2024. The company will also cooperate with Allbirds to develop renewable materials. Zara's parent company decided that all its subsidiaries, including Zara, Pull & Bear, and Massimo Dutti, will provide products made of 100 percent sustainable fabrics before 2025. H&M has said its products will be made entirely of recycled or other sustainable materials by 2030.

With its increasing emphasis on environmental protection, China’s consumer market for recycled textiles is expected to continue to grow into the future.

Shaoxing Keqiao Runshan Knitting Co Ltd is taking on a leading role in developing renewable materials. In June, the company received a Global Recycled Standard 4.0 certificate, which is expected to help it break into the global high-end market.

Many domestic textile companies, especially those in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, started to upgrade their looms in 2017. According to industry insiders, the latest water jet looms can save more than 20 percent on energy and increase production efficiency by about 10 percent compared to old models.