Energy efficiency and conservation in China's chemical fiber industry.

China is currently experiencing rapid economic growth as a result of industrialization and urbanization. In the next 20 years, China's energy demand will increase substantially, and energy conservation will become imperative for the country's low carbon economic transformation. Since 1998, China's chemical fiber production has ranked first in the world. In 2011, China's chemical fiber production accounted for about 70% of the world's total output. Therefore, energy saving is important for China's chemical fiber industry, and can provide immense benefits, and hence the need for thorough and intense research. In this paper, the co-integration method is used to test the relationship between energy consumption and its influencing factors such as GDP, energy prices, population and R&D expenditures. The results show that there is a long-term relationship between the variables. Based on this, we estimate energy demand and predict the energy-saving potential for the industry under different scenarios. We apply the Monte Carlo simulation method to verify the reliability of the prediction. Scenario analysis is adopted to predict energy demand and energy saving in the industry under different scenarios. Finally, we propose some policy suggestions on energy saving based on the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]