Environmental burden and health inequity in China’s road-based express delivery

Abstract

Urban e-commerce growth has driven unprecedented expansion in express delivery services, yet their cross-regional environmental and health consequences remain poorly understood. Here we present a novel spatially explicit assessment of emissions and their environmental burden in China’s express delivery sector by integrating large-scale shipping records, geospatial modeling and atmospheric chemical transport models. In 2021, express delivery transportation emitted 23.9-Mt CO2-equivalent and 166.4-kt atmospheric pollutant equivalents, creating substantial environmental inequality. These emissions and associated health impacts disproportionately affect key transit regions connecting major urban agglomerations, which handled only 12.7% of parcels but accounted for 37.3% of the total emissions, with 75.2% of their air-pollution-related premature deaths from other regions’ delivery activities. Express-delivery-related pollution caused 5,100 premature deaths in 2021, yet implementing synergistic mitigation strategies could prevent over 256,000 cumulative premature deaths by 2050, underscoring the need for sustainable logistics that balance urban convenience with environmental externalities. China’s rapid e-commerce growth has driven a 12-fold surge in express delivery, yet cross-regional emissions and health impacts remain poorly quantified. Road transport emitted 23.9-Mt CO2-equivalent and caused approximately 5,100 premature deaths in 2021, revealing stark transit-region health inequities and guiding sustainable logistics pathways.