Trends in Japan’s CO2 Emissions and the Challenges of Freight

Focus on unattended delivery as a measure to reduce the number of re-deliveries

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June 03, 2021

  • Tomoaki Yoshida
  • Yutaro Suzuki
  • Megumi Wada

Summary

◆Reducing CO2, which accounts for approximately 90% of greenhouse gases, is essential for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Looking at CO2 emissions by sector, although it has generally been declining in recent years, the pace of CO2 cuts in the transport sector has lagged behind other sectors. One reason for this is that energy sources depend on fossil fuels.

◆CO2 cuts in the transport sector, particularly in the freight sector, are lagging behind. Behind this lies the decline in load efficiency due to the expansion of the EC market. In order to improve load efficiency, it is necessary to find a way to deal with frequent small-lot shipments in addition to promoting large-scale transport. One way to do this is to reduce the number of re-deliveries by switching to unattended delivery, in which courier boxes are installed and packages delivered with no face-to-face contact.

◆By estimating the effect of reducing CO2 emissions through the reduction of re-deliveries, it was found that a 1% reduction in the re-delivery rate could reduce CO2 by about 20,000 tons. Although it is difficult to reduce CO2 in the transport sector with unattended delivery alone, it has the merit of being easily and quickly implemented. The importance of unattended delivery will increase in the future as the EC market is expected to expand. In addition to resolving legal issues related to unattended delivery and promoting the utilization of the existing system, it is necessary to accelerate efforts by setting numerical targets for diffusion rate and formulating a roadmap.

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