Cost and Potential of Circular Economy Measures for CO₂ Mitigation in the Textile Industry

The textile industry is under increasing global pressure to move away from linear production systems, prompting an urgent shift toward a circular economy (CE). The CE framework for CO₂ mitigation and the abatement cost curve for China's textile industry was constructed (2023-2030), aiming to evaluate the CO₂ mitigation potential and abatement costs of the CE measures. The results show that the CO₂ mitigation potential of CE measures in China's textile industry is 57.70 Mt CO₂/year, accounting for 18.79% of the total emissions of the textile industry in 2023. Under the assumption that emission reductions can realize their economic value within the carbon emissions trading system, low-cost and high-potential measures represented by second-hand textile trade and mechanical recycle offer a CO₂ mitigation potential of 35.09 Mt CO₂/year, with an average abatement cost of -44.06 USD/tCO₂, representing the most promising direction for promotion in the short term. In contrast, high-cost and low-potential measures are not suitable for large-scale deployment at the current stage. Achieving CO₂ reductions in the textile industry through CE requires multidimensional cooperation among policy effectiveness, technological progress, consumer markets, and energy structures.