The carbon tax of textile and garment industry is about to start

The carbon tax, which was once considered by the industry to be out of reach, has entered the vision of the Chinese public.

On the morning of November 23, the State Council Information Office held a press conference to invite Xie Zhenhua, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, to introduce the "2010 Annual Report on China's Policies and Actions in Response to Climate Change" and the UN climate change conference in Cancun. ask. At the meeting, carbon taxes became a hot topic of questioning and discussion.

Xie Zhenhua said that during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, China will make greater use of market mechanisms and economic instruments to achieve its goal of reducing carbon intensity. "Carbon tax plan, we are continuing to study."

According to a research report, the current energy consumption of China's textile and apparel industry is approximately 4.84 tons of standard coal per ton of fiber. With the introduction of a carbon tax, the textile and apparel industry will bear the brunt. When will the carbon tax be introduced? In what form will it be implemented? What are the pros and cons of companies? How to meet the carbon tax economic era? These problems have caused hot discussions in Quanzhou's textile and clothing industry. While waiting for answers to various questions, companies also put forward relevant suggestions and expectations.

When to start?

"When the technology to be detected is mature"

In mid-October of this year, at the United Nations Climate Negotiation Summit in Tianjin, the carbon tax became a term frequently mentioned by representatives from various countries. In a discussion, Sun Cuihua, deputy director of the Department of Climate Change at the National Development and Reform Commission, believes that studying the feasibility of setting up a carbon tax will be one of the priorities of our country's future work.

According to media reports, as early as July 2008, the Institute of Fiscal Science of the Ministry of Finance established a special task force to study the possibility of introducing carbon taxes in China. In mid-2010, a special report on the "Framework Design of China's Carbon Tax System" was published.

“Although all signs show that the carbon tax levy is about to start soon, we don’t think it is so fast, because both the industry and the enterprise need to have a process of adapting to the plan. Carbon tax is a new thing, there is no foundation, and it must be comprehensive. It is difficult to roll out the implementation. From now on to guide the public to discuss vigorously to the actual introduction of at least two or three years, it is estimated that the first time will be in 2012-2013." The relevant person in charge of the Jinjiang Textile and Apparel Industry Association believes.

In the eyes of the company, the key point for when the levy begins is carbon emission detection and measurement technology. "China's carbon emission detection and measurement technology is not yet mature. There is no professional organization responsible. How do we calculate how much CO2 is emitted by the enterprise? How to monitor? If these technical problems are not resolved, the carbon tax levy can only be discussed on paper." Including Fujian. Long Feng Textile Technology Industrial Co., Ltd. R & D manager Wu Xiujian, many corporate R & D personnel have said.

How to implement?

"should be matched with reward mechanism"

In the carbon tax design, which part of the levy is the biggest issue is also the company’s most concerned issue.

Jia Kang, director of the Institute of Fiscal Science of the Ministry of Finance, told the media that the government introduced three technical alternatives for the carbon tax: one is to put it in the environmental protection tax, as a tax item, to see if it can come with the environmental protection tax; This is in contrast to the fuel tax reforms that introduce carbon taxes into consumption taxes; the third is to include carbon taxes in resource taxes, and modify tax rates based on the carbon content of fossil fuels.

No matter which method is adopted, most Quanzhou textile and garment companies have already unconsciously determined that the company will be the expropriated party, and the cost pressure brought by it will be pushed down one by one. “Once corporate costs increase, we will consider increasing the selling price of the products. By then, the carbon tax will be a factor for upstream product price increases for the entire industry. This is no different from dealing with general raw material price changes.” Huafeng Zhang Xueyong, Marketing and Production Manager of Weaving Printing and Dyeing Industry Co., Ltd. said.

Also quite concerned about the carbon tax. This stems from the United States House of Representatives passed the "United States Clean Energy Security Act." The act stipulates that from 2020, the United States will impose carbon tariffs on products from countries that do not have carbon emission reduction limits, including China. Some developed countries in the EU are also brewing carbon tariffs.

“Europe and the United States and other countries wishing to implement carbon tariffs are actually trying to protect their trade with environmental protection. Export companies will be hit. Experts say that if domestic taxes are introduced, other countries will levy carbon tariffs on a double taxation basis. According to the WTO agreement, it can be seen that the imposition of a carbon tax can help our export companies to avoid the risk of being damaged in international trade frictions, which is beneficial to our exporting companies." Exports such as Bao Ri Da, Luo Ri Ya, and Colorful Fox Companies have expressed.

According to the person in charge of the textile and apparel industry mentioned above, relevant customs statistics show that last year, Quanzhou's textile and apparel exports totaled more than US$2.1 billion, mainly in developed countries such as Europe and the United States. “This means that if the domestic carbon tax is introduced, at least 2.1 billion Quanzhou textile and apparel exports will benefit.”

Quanzhou Transformation Meets Carbon Tax

On the one hand, carbon tariffs that developed countries may impose and trade barriers for erecting carbon emission reductions are on the other. On the one hand, the pace of carbon taxation has already taken a big step forward in China. In the face of the general trend of low-carbon and environmental protection, Quanzhou textile and apparel companies have taken active actions and stepped up efforts to implement a transition plan for low-carbon companies in their respective “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”.

Green factory low-carbon plant

Next year is the first year of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” and it will also be the first year when Longfeng Textile's headquarters construction enters a substantive stage. According to reports, in the company's headquarters area construction plan, "green plant area and low-carbon plant" was mentioned first.

It is understood that the planned green area of ​​Longfeng headquarters will occupy more than 35% of the total land area, and a reasonable green belt will help absorb carbon dioxide in production. In addition, all its production workshops are designed by well-known production workshop design companies in Germany and Japan in order to achieve the best environmental protection and low carbon effect.

Coincidentally, Huafeng Printing and Dyeing will also conduct a plant expansion plan in the near future. The company’s leadership is currently working with a co-design company on how to design wastewater discharge pipes to achieve the best sewage treatment results.

Equipment renovation process innovation

In addition to making efforts in plant design, Longfeng and Huafeng will make great efforts to reform the equipment. It is understood that the production equipment required for the expansion of Longfeng will use all high-end imported equipment from Japan, and will achieve the effect of improving production efficiency, saving labor and electricity. Huafeng is also embarking on the introduction of advanced equipment from Taiwan.

In addition, many companies also reduce energy consumption through innovative processes. Shishi Wanfengsheng Dyeing & Weaving Co., Ltd. developed a new process called “fabric dyeing and bathing” which subverted the traditional acid dyeing, saving water 50%, saving coal 40%, saving 50%, and saving 50% of the time. Save dyes auxiliaries and labor; Qingyuan Printing and Dyeing Co., Ltd. took the lead in the same industry to overcome the problems of coal-water-slurry hybrid power generation, reduce overall energy consumption by 25%, and increase profit margin by 4%.

According to Cai Dongsheng, president of Shishi Textile and Garment Industry Association, many companies in the weaving, sewing, garments, design, accessories, and other sectors have benefited from low carbon technologies through improved processes, introduction of technology, and upgrading of equipment.

Environmental protection raw material research and development

Reducing the use of petrochemical raw materials and chemical fibers, and actively developing and using biological materials such as bamboo fiber and corn fiber have also formed a trend in the textile industry in Quanzhou.

At the Shanghai Textile Fabrics Exhibition in October, Haitian Textile joined hands with DuPont to use corn as raw material to develop a series of differentiated fibers such as PTT staple fibers and functional fibers, which has overcome the drawbacks of traditional chemical fiber products that rely too much on petroleum resources. The fabric processed by the fiber can be dyed at a low temperature and has a bright color. The characteristics of energy saving and emission reduction are distinct.

The supply of new fiber fabrics for bamboo fiber researched by Hongtai company is in short supply. Experts have been hired to monitor energy consumption and started to use carbon labels. Tailong cloth industry is developing a renewable and recyclable fabric that can be remelted at high temperatures to form raw materials. Repeated use.