Posts produce 26m tonnes of CO2 emissions annually

According to its first worldwide survey, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) estimates that Posts in its 191 member countries generated at least 26m tonnes of CO2 in 2008 through the operation of postal vehicles and buildings. These Posts, employing more than 5m people, operate a global network of more than 600,000 post offices and almost one million postal vehicles. They represent the planet’s largest physical distribution network. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates total annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions at 38bn tonnes, meaning that postal operations produce 0.07% of these emissions.

Posts in industrialised countries emitted around 11m tonnes of CO2, or 41% of the total, while those in the developing and least developed countries released 15m tonnes, or 59% of the total.

A commitment

On the flip side, many Posts have environmentally friendly practices, with thousands of letter carriers delivering mail on foot or using bicycles. In France, for example, it is estimated that La Poste’s 100,000 letter carriers cover the equivalent of 50 trips around the world every day. And Japan Post uses 10,000 bicycles, France’s La Poste 28,000 and the Belgian Post 4,200. Posts are also increasingly investing in alternative vehicles.

On the eve of the World Climate Summit in Copenhagen, the postal sector is committed to curbing climate change and finding more eco-friendly ways to process and deliver mail items.

“This first global inventory is a major step forward in our efforts to combat climate change,” said UPU director general Edouard Dayan, who will attend the Copenhagen conference on 15 & 16 December. “The UPU will work with all its partners, including the United Nations Environment Programme, to encourage the polluters of today and tomorrow to reduce their environmental impact in the long term. Sound management of environmental issues can drive growth. In taking up the challenge of green growth, businesses can rethink their logistics chain processes, improve their efficiency, plan long-term energy saving measures, develop new products and services less harmful to the environment and project a responsible business image,” adds Dayan, whose agency is looking into setting up a financing mechanism to compensate Posts’ carbon emissions.

The survey results are based on Posts’ replies to a UPU questionnaire sent to all member countries, together with data from PostEurop, a European postal organisation, which also gathers data on the carbon footprint of its members.

A total of 99 Posts completed the questionnaire, representing a response rate of 52%. For the others, the UPU drew up estimates based on key variables such as the country’s postal traffic, number of post offices, number of postal staff, surface area of the country, population, level of development, and national greenhouse gas emissions provided by the World Bank.

The questionnaire was restricted to emissions produced by postal installations and vehicles. The UPU will continue to refine its survey in 2010, by including data on indirect emissions, such as those generated by private operators and subcontractors, air transport, waste management, or the manufacture of envelopes and parcels. The UPU distributed a guide to all its member countries to help them gather data and make the necessary calculations to draw up the inventory.

The UPU will represent the postal sector at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen.

Other key results

• Broken down by region, the 26m tonnes are generated as follows: Americas (6.5m tonnes); Europe (8m tonnes); Africa (1m tonnes); Asia (10m tonnes); and Oceania (0.4m tonnes).
• Five Posts* from industrialised countries and five from developing countries are among the 10 biggest generators of emissions; between them, these ten Posts account for some 65% of global postal emissions.
• Five Posts* from least developed countries, four from developing countries and one from an industrialised country are among the 10 least polluting Posts.

*The UPU pledged that only a general regional mapping would be drawn up, with individual member countries’ results communicated to those countries only.