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France proposes banning free delivery of online shopping due to environmental impact

The Local France
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France proposes banning free delivery of online shopping due to environmental impact
A delivery man wearing a protective mask carries an Amazon box and a letter in a street of Paris on April 15, 2020 on the 30th day of a lockdown in France aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 infection caused by the novel coronavirus. (Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP)

A parliamentary report denouncing the environmental impact of online shopping has outlined a series of new measures to regulate deliveries.

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The report published on Thursday, written by two senators from the Parti Socialiste and Les Républicains parties and seen by Le Figaro newspaper, aims to reduce the environmental impact caused by the transport of goods.

The measures suggested include banning free deliveries and requiring companies selling their products online to disclose the carbon footprint of the delivery options on offer. 

"In France, nearly 90 percent of the internal transport of goods is carried out by road (...), to the detriment of rail and river freight.

"Twenty-three percent of transport-related greenhouse gas emissions result from heavy goods vehicles and 19 percent from light commercial vehicles," the report said.

In 2014 a law aimed at supporting small bookstores restricted free deliveries in the online sale of books. Amazon hit back by charging customers just one centime for books dispatched to their homes.

READ ALSO: The French town where local businesses are creating an alternative to Amazon

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Accelerated by the pandemic, e-commerce has exploded last year – it represented €112 billion in turnover in France in 2020, according to Le Monde, and 92 percent of French people now shop online. One billion parcels were delivered in 2020, compared to 800 million in 2019.

According to the Agency for ecological transition (Ademe), every online purchase is the equivalent of 12 grams of CO2, the equivalent of driving a car for about 1km.

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Anonymous 2021/05/21 08:18
Only in France. Why does France always have to bury it's head in the sand regarding modern day commerce, doesn't it realise that the world has moved on from the days of walking to a shop and then carrying the goods home. Sick of hearing about the environment and using it as an excuse to restrict what the population can or cannot do. It's exactly the same with the language. When will they learn that language is a living entity that is always changing. When the under 30's realise that their own Government is holding them back with communicating to the rest of the world, they are not going to be very happy and content.
  • Anonymous 2021/05/21 19:52
    Very far from "only in France": many other countries are seeing the extra pollution from exhaust emissions from so many deliveries, or the additional damage to roads & kerbstones where trucks/vans drive up onto pavements. "Modern day commerce" will have to pay for the damage it causes, one way or another, as with the disposal costs of their packaging. Sorry, but it's the customers who may have their heads in the sand if they don't see that nothing comes free, not even clean air. If the environment is ever used as an excuse by those who pretend to know, then you can guarantee their understanding is non-existen. That's wrong, but I've not come across that. The environment is not an excuse, it's a reason why yes, we do have to limit what we do, because it belongs to everyone present & future. If you're sick of hearing about it I'm sorry, because it's right around all of us, you, me & everyone else. However I'm more sorry, for just one example, for children suffering from asthma from traffic pollution. Home delivery has been great as a protection during the pandemic, but it's not actually free.
peter_303884 2021/05/20 13:07
I love Amazon! Why? Few if any stores have the products I'm interested in. The only exception is le Briconautes. The CO2 dream indeed creates some really, really strange government actions. Free delivery or not someone will pay; for instance a lower price for product and a freight charge. In addition it has protected our family against Covid 19.

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