Head of UN agency urges worldwide postal sector to act to reduce emissions and grow the business at the same time
According to its first global survey, the Universal Postal Union estimates that the vehicles and buildings operated by Posts worldwide generated at least 26 million tonnes of CO2 in 2008.
Posts employ more than 5 million people and operate more than 600,000 post offices and almost one million postal vehicles. They represent the planet's largest physical distribution network.
Posts in industrialized countries emitted around 11 million tonnes of CO2, while those in the developing and least developed countries released 15 million tonnes.
Postal operations thus produce 0.07% of the total annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, estimated at 38 billion tonnes by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Commitment
“The UPU will work with its partners, including UNEP, to encourage the polluters of today and tomorrow to reduce their environmental impact in the long term," says UPU Director General Edouard Dayan, who will attend the Copenhagen Conference. "Sound management of environmental issues can drive 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.”
The UPU is also looking into setting up a financing mechanism to compensate Posts’ carbon emissions.
The survey results are based on the replies of 99 Posts to a UPU questionnaire, data obtained from PostEurop, a European postal organization, and estimates based on, for example, the country's postal traffic, number of post offices, number of postal staff, and national greenhouse gas emissions provided by the World Bank.
In 2010, the survey will include questions about indirect emissions generated by private operators and subcontractors, air transport, waste management, or the manufacture of envelopes and parcels.