India’s e-commerce market is expected to witness a tenfold increase from the current 400 crore parcels delivered per year to 4,000 crore parcels by 2030, with total annual emissions from the sector hitting 80 lakh tonnes of CO2. This is the equivalent of the emissions from 16.5 lakh petrol cars driven for a year or the emissions from 20 gas-fired power plants in a year.
The data has been brought forth in a research report by the Clean Mobility Collective (CMC) and Stand.earth Research Group (SRG).
Growth to have huge impact on climate change
The global e-commerce market is anticipated to witness substantial growth, with parcel deliveries projected to more than double from 31,500 crore in 2022 to a whopping 80,000 crore by 2030. The report also highlights that these increased deliveries will contribute to a total emission of 16 crore tonnes of CO2 in 2030, equivalent to 400 gas-fired power plants.
The report titled ‘Cost of Convenience: Revealing the Hidden Climate and Health Impacts of the Global E-commerce-driven Parcel Delivery Industry through 2030’ predicts that global annual e-commerce emissions related to last-mile delivery alone could rise to 160,000 tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030.
More than 100 crore trees need to be planted every year
A key finding of the report is that to sequester the last mile delivery sector emissions for 2022 alone over 100 crore trees would need to be planted every year, allowing them to grow for a decade.
The report also finds that in a business-as-usual scenario from 2023 to 2030, major international and domestic players in the Indian logistics market like Amazon, Flipkart and DHL will collectively contribute an additional 17 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
The report singles out Amazon for its insufficient commitments towards achieving zero emission deliveries by 2030. “Unabated growth of last-mile delivery will have significant climate and health impacts if e-commerce companies fail to act at scale before 2030. Amazon, in particular — the sector’s global leader — knows this is a problem and, in turn, has announced net zero 2040 plans. Based on this new research, not only are Amazon’s plans too weak and a decade too late, the company discloses far less information on last-mile delivery than its peers about its progress,” said SRG Investigative Researcher Dr Devyani Singh.
