Study on the Spatial Pattern of the Carbon Footprint of China’s E‑Commerce Express Packaging Considering Embodied Carbon Transfer

Zi-Han Luo and Chang-Zheng Zhu ()
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Zi-Han Luo: School of Modern Post, Xi’an University of Posts & Telecommunications, Xi’an 710061, China
Chang-Zheng Zhu: School of Modern Post, Xi’an University of Posts & Telecommunications, Xi’an 710061, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-25

Abstract: With the rapid development of e-commerce in China, carbon emissions from express packaging have become increasingly prominent, and the division of inter-regional emission responsibilities has emerged as a key research focus. Based on the principle of shared responsibility between producers and consumers, this study integrates life cycle assessment (LCA) and spatial decomposition analysis to quantify the full-life-cycle carbon footprint of China’s e-commerce express packaging across the raw material, production, and disposal stages and calculates the inter-provincial embodied carbon transfer. The findings show that: (1) in 2022, total emissions reached 41.209 million t CO 2 e, exhibiting a “more in the east, less in the west” spatial pattern, with Guangdong Province as the largest source; (2) plastic packaging generates roughly twice the upstream emissions of paper packaging, while paper packaging surpasses plastic during disposal; and (3) significant inter-provincial disparities exist in embodied carbon transfer, with seven southeastern coastal provinces as net exporters and a net-import pattern of “more in the east, less in the west; more in the south, less in the north,” accounting for 40 % of the total transfer. Based on this, it is recommended that the government attach great importance to the issue of responsibility allocation arising from the embodied carbon transfer of e-commerce express packaging.

Keywords: e-commerce express packaging; carbon footprint; implied carbon transfer; full life cycle; shared producer and consumer responsibility principle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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