Global Textile Sector should find ways to reduce emission – Experts urge at “Atexcon 2023” in Coimbatore
While the textile industry is major contributor to economy and employment, it also leaves behind a huge impact on the environment.
India’s Textile Ministry’s Joint Secretary Prajakta Verma who was one of the speakers at the Atexcon 2023 -an international textile conference said today that the emissions made by global textile sector is equal to that of aviation sector and maritime shipping, and this needs to be addressed immediately.
The 11th edition of Atexcon, short for Asian Textile Conference is being held in the city for two days, and it is organized by Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) on the theme ‘2025 and Beyond – Asia, the global hub for textile manufacturing and consumers’.
Union Minister of State for Railways and Textiles Darshana Vikram Jardosh was the Guest of Honor of the conference. Several textile associations like Texprocil, SIMA, ITMF and industry stakeholders participated in the inaugural.
Welcoming the gathering CITI Chairman Rajkumar said that the world today is going through a challenging time; the pandemic emergency may be over but the economy is yet to recover from the after effects. The geopolitical tension remains high. WTO has cut off the growth of world trade in goods to 1.7%. Inflation is also high and moreover there is a decline in demand for textile and apparel products world over.
“Hence it becomes imperative for all of us to understand the changing trend and discuss its impact on the future, so that the textile and apparel industry can take on these challenges head on,” he said.
Knowledge partner of the event Gherzi Textil Organization Navdeep Sodhi shared that the global textile clothing industry is undergoing major restructuring and consolidation.
He shared that textile industry has a huge foot print on the environment, and the legislation in the Global North is knocking on the doors. Hence, the industry needs to take note of that and prepare for clean technology for circularity.
Speaking further, he said that the textile industry in Asia needs to develop its clusters. There are millions of anonymous MSME clusters in this grand geography that cannot restructure on their own but they should. Hence, policy makers should find ways to help them, needs public funding to respond to challenges. He underlined that whatever distortion existed in policy needs to be addressed in order to improve the availability of raw material to the industry at competitive prices.
Union Textile Ministry’s Joint Secretary Prajakta Verma who spoke next shared about her experience with Textile MSMEs in South Korea. “The MSMEs (in South Korea) have incorporated sustainability principles in their daily operations,” she shared and added that the MSMEs in the India and Asian Textile sectors need to be helped to attain this transformation.
She said that awareness of various initiatives by State and Central Government of India for circularity and sustainability needs to be created and MSMEs and other stakeholders should be made known how to avail these schemes and the support system available with the government.
Union Minister of State for Railways and Textiles Darshana Vikram Jardosh said that while Asia is the centre of textile trade and has been a textile manufacturing powerhouse, it has several challenges like fluctuating raw material cost, change in consumer demand, and managing its emission.
She said that by investing in R&D, promoting skill development programs and fostering collaboration across the textile value chain can ensure the industry can thrive. She appreciated the organizers for creating such a platform to discuss the core-issues that exist in the industry today.
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