Indian e-commerce to grow 1000% & emissions 8-mn tons by 2030

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IANS | 25 May, 2023
Portending an alarming situation, Indian e-commerce is expected to grow 1000 percent and emissions will shoot up by 8 million tons (80 Lakh) by 2030, as per a new research by the Clean Mobility Collective (CMC) and Stand.earth Research Group (SRG), released globally on Wednesday.

The domestic e-commerce market is likely to witness a 10-fold hike - from the current levels of 4-billion parcels delivered per annum to 40 billion per year by 2030.

The total annual emissions from this sector would zoom up to 8 million tons of CO2 - equivalent to 16.50 lakh petrol cars driven for a year - Aby 2030, said the CMC-SRG study.

The report said that the global e-commerce market is anticipated to witness substantial growth with parcel growth projected to more than double from 315 billion parcels in 2022 to over 800 billion parcels by 2030.

This heightened activity will contribute to a total emission of 16 crore tons of CO2 in the next 8 years, or equal to 400 gas-fired power plants.

Already notorious as a significant contributor to Greenhouse gas emissions world over, the transportation sector will see exponential emissions increase by 2030, as stated by the report.

Titled aCost of Convenience: Revealing the hidden climate and health impacts of the global e-commerce-driven parcel delivery industry through 2030', the report forecasts that global annual e-commerce emissions related to last mile delivery alone could rise to as high as 160,000 tons of CO2 per annum by 2030.

To sequester the last-mile delivery sector emissions for 2022 alone, over one billion trees are required to be planted every year and allow them to grow for a decade, says one of the key points in the report.

"With e-commerce growing exponentially over the coming years, the industry needs to address its ballooning emission footprint. Decarbonising the sector is not only economically viable and saves India significantly massive expenditure on import but has the co-benefits of reducing and avoiding emissions and air pollution as well," said Siddharth Sreenivas, CMC's India Coordinator.

"Unabated growth of last-mile delivery will have significant climate and health impacts if e-commerce companies fail to act at scale before 2030," added SRG Investigative Researcher Dr Devyani Singh.

The reports said that in the normal business scenario from 2023-2030, major players like Amazon, Flipkart and DHL will together contribute an additional 17 million tons of CO2 emissions.

The report has frowned upon global e-commerce market leader Amazon "for its insufficient commitments towards achieving zero emission deliveries by 2030", plus other things.