Indian e-commerce and emissions to grow exponentially: Report

The Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow from 4 billion (400 crore) parcels delivered per year to 40 billion (4,000 crores) a year by 2030

Indian e-commerce and emissions is expected to grow exponentially, according to a new research report by the global Clean Mobility Collective (CMC) and Stand.earth Research Group (SRG).

The Indian e-commerce market is expected to witness a tenfold increase from current levels of 4 billion (400 crore) parcels delivered per year to 40 billion (4,000 crores) parcels delivered a year by 2030, with total annual emissions from the sector being 8 million (80 lakhs) tons of CO2 by 2030.

This is the equivalent of the emissions from 1.615 million (16.5 lakhs) petrol cars driven for a year or the emissions from 20 gas-fired power plants in a year.

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The global e-commerce market is anticipated to witness substantial growth, with parcel deliveries projected to more than double from 315 billion (31,500 crores) delivered in 2022 to a whopping 800 billion (80,000 crores) delivered annually by 2030.

The report also highlights that these increased deliveries will contribute to a total emission of 160 million (16 crores) tons of CO2 in 2030, equivalent to 400 gas fired power plants.

Already a significant contributor to Greenhouse gas emissions globally, the transportation sector is expected to witness exponential emission growth by 2030, according to the latest CMC/SRG report, titled Cost of Convenience: Revealing the hidden climate and health impacts of the global e-commerce-driven parcel delivery industry through 2030. The report predicts that global annual e-commerce emissions related to last-mile delivery alone could rise to as high as 160,000 tons of CO2 per year by 2030.

A key finding of the report is that to sequester the last mile-delivery sector emissions for 2022 alone, over one billion (100 crores) trees would need to be planted every year, allowing them to grow for a decade.

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“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 co benefits of reducing and avoiding emissions and air pollution as well,”said Siddharth Sreenivas, India Coordinator for the Clean Mobility Collective.

“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.