Research on the Development Status and Countermeasures of Green Logistics under the Background of “Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality” ()
1. Introduction
With the increasing global warming, low energy consumption and low carbon emissions have become an unavoidable and important issue in economic development. At the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Chinese government explicitly proposed making efforts to reach the goal of Carbon Peak (peak of carbon emissions before 2030) and Carbon Neutrality (Dual Carbon) (carbon neutrality before 2060). Carbon peaking and carbon neutrality are one of China’s key tasks in the coming decades and were first written into the government work report in 2021. In 2022, the report of the Party’s 20th National Congress proposed to “actively and steadily promote carbon to peak carbon neutrality”. Under the background of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality”, green development is the overall trend of the development of China’s logistics industry. On the one hand, the rapid economic development has further promoted the transformation and innovation of the logistics industry model, and promoted the internal power of the green development of the logistics industry to continue to strengthen; On the other hand, with the continuous increase of energy conservation and emission reduction in recent years, environmental benefits, economic benefits and social benefits have been improved simultaneously, and green logistics has become an important driving force for national economic development. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that energy consumption in China’s transportation, storage and postal industries has been on the rise in recent years. The energy consumption of transportation, storage and postal industries has increased from 128 million tons of standard coal in 2003 to 439 million tons of standard coal in 2019, accounting for the proportion of China’s total energy consumption increased from 6.50% to 9.01%. The increase in energy consumption will inevitably lead to increased emissions, which is far from the goal of “carbon peak and carbon neutrality”. Therefore, how to promote the green development of the logistics industry is an urgent problem.
2. Theoretical Basis
2.1. Green Logistics under the Background of “Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality”
The “two-carbon” theory refers to strategies that simultaneously reduce carbon dioxide emissions and increase the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed to achieve the dual goals of global climate change prevention and control and carbon peak targets. At the same time, reducing emissions and increasing absorption is an important way to achieve carbon neutrality and an effective means to control global warming within a certain range. “Green logistics” refers to the use of environmental protection, and low-carbon technology, advocating green consumption, improving logistics services, reducing energy consumption and environmental burden, improve logistics efficiency and quality purposes. Green logistics theory is to integrate the concept of environmental protection and sustainable development into logistics management, reduce waste emissions and energy consumption through green logistics technology and management measures, establish public recognition with a green corporate image, and make it have a good interactive relationship with consumers and the government.
2.2. Related Literature
As early as the 1980s, China began to implement environmental supervision, environmental intervention and other policies, market-oriented, launched water and air pollution control carbon emission policies, the implementation of pollution emissions trading scheme, control of sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide in industry, manufacturing and other related industries overall consumption. China’s carbon trading institutions transfer carbon emission quotas to major polluters on a market-oriented basis and formulate a carbon emission permit system to allow market trading of carbon emissions under certain rules. At the same time, the policy has carried out relevant pilot work in four provinces and parts of three cities in China. Later, with the carbon emission trading system, more types of pollution have been expanded, and environmental regulations have become stricter, which has promoted the improvement of the ecological level of the industry to a certain extent and met the goal of building a good and sustainable social industrial environment. In 2007, the pilot was expanded to Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shaanxi and other 11 provinces and cities, the pilot feedback is good.
About carbon neutrality, Chinese scholars have carried out research earlier. Fu Yun [1] has constructed a new model of low-carbon economic development in China by taking low-carbon development as the direction, energy saving and emission reduction as the means, and carbon neutral technology as the method, and then put forward policy measures to establish the national carbon trading mechanism, establish the carbon fund, and vigorously develop renewable energy. Guo Zhaoxian [2] believes that in order to achieve carbon neutrality on schedule, the most urgent task is not only to “decarbonize” the energy system but also to “decarbonize” the industrial system. Undoubtedly, the adjustment and upgrading of industrial greening will significantly promote the development of the “dual carbon” process [3] . Based on the background of the low-carbon economy, Wei Yongfu [4] analyzed the development and shortcomings of the logistics industry and put forward five suggestions for the low-carbon development of the logistics industry, namely, actively promote the construction of low-carbon logistics public platform, form a logistics standardization system, jointly carry out low-carbon development, improve energy utilization efficiency, and reduce carbon emissions in the operation process.
In the study of green logistics, the total output value of China’s logistics industry is large, and the concept of green development is gradually integrated into the logistics industry. However, the unit energy consumption of the logistics industry has not been significantly reduced. China’s logistics industry started late, the service level and research of green logistics are still in the initial stage, and there is still a big gap with developed countries in the implementation of green logistics policies, technology application, concepts and habits. In terms of policy implementation, the logistics industry implements most of the industry departments in the country, involving more departments, and some departments have their own systems, lacking unified standards. In terms of policy implementation, the logistics industry implements most of the industry departments in the country, involving more departments, and some departments have their own systems, lacking unified standards. In terms of policy implementation, the logistics industry implements most of the industry departments in the country, involving more departments, and some departments have their own systems, lacking unified standards. Chen Genlong [5] analyzed the opportunities and challenges faced by the logistics industry and believed that the development of green logistics and innovation of the logistics business is the only feasible strategic path for the logistics industry to seek survival and growth in the new situation. Wang Jing [6] defined green logistics as the green process of reducing the impact of logistics on the environment by making full use of logistics resources and adopting advanced logistics technologies to rationally plan and implement logistics activities such as transportation, storage, loading and unloading, handling, packaging, circulation and processing, distribution and information processing. Xiao Wei [7] proposed that green packaging is an inevitable trend in the development of modern agricultural product logistics, and it is necessary to accelerate the introduction of modern green packaging technology, establish a sound green packaging technology system, and improve the application rate of green packaging technology. Zhou Yang [8] summarized that the country mainly promotes the “green” reform of all aspects of logistics by issuing green logistics policies, such as the “green packaging” policy of packaging and the “green” policy of vehicles in transportation.
Under the “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” goal, the development of green logistics has been imperative, and the industrial chain related to green logistics has greater room for progress. In order to promote the high-quality development of green logistics, China has promulgated a series of policies and regulations to improve people’s recognition of the concept of green and low-carbon life, and constantly publicize the green lifestyle and production mode. The government has also increased its financial support for green logistics technology [9] . In order to achieve the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, the logistics industry should pursue higher quality development, and green logistics is an important way for the high-quality development of logistics enterprises.
3. The Importance of Green Logistics in the Context of “Dual Carbon”
In the context of dual-carbon, the e-commerce industry must recognize the importance of green logistics and actively take action. Green logistics refers to the use of clean energy, optimized transport routes and the use of environmentally friendly packaging and other measures to achieve the premise of reducing the impact on the environment, to ensure the efficient transportation of goods. In the context of dual-carbon, green logistics has become the only way for the e-commerce industry to achieve sustainable development.
3.1. Promote the Development of the Industry to Meet the Needs of Modern Industries
The implementation of the concept of green logistics management is an inevitable requirement for the development of the industry. In recent years, the logistics industry has achieved rapid expansion and development, which has activated the market economy, but also caused problems such as internal management chaos and outdated management ideas. Under the guidance of the concept of green logistics, through the use of environmental protection technology and methods to meet the needs of modern industries. Such as: through reasonable planning of transport routes, the use of energy-saving and environmental protection vehicles, reducing energy consumption and emissions of carbon dioxide; Applying technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence to monitor and optimize logistics processes, improve transportation efficiency and reduce energy consumption; Efficient warehouse management systems to optimize the storage and distribution of goods and reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption; Cooperate with other enterprises or organizations to share logistics resources, reduce no-load transportation and reduce costs. Relevant industries actively carry out self-examination and self-correction of problems and constantly improve the details of management. Industry associations also give full play to the role of guidance and standardization, so that the logistics industry gradually moves closer to a modern industry and moves forward in the direction of autonomy, refinement and intelligence.
3.2. Green Logistics Can Significantly Reduce Carbon Emissions
In recent years, with the rapid development of the e-commerce industry, the flow of e-commerce has shown a blowout growth, which has also led to the continuous rise of logistics carbon emissions. Through the implementation of green logistics, compared with traditional logistics, the main use of clean energy and environmentally friendly packaging and other measures, making the emissions of logistics are significantly reduced. At the same time, green logistics can also develop new energy vehicles, apply Internet of Things technology, optimize logistics routes, etc., to further enhance the role of green logistics in reducing carbon emissions. For example, the use of renewable energy as a power source, such as solar energy, wind energy, etc., can effectively reduce the dependence on fossil fuels, reduce carbon emissions; Through an intelligent scheduling system and advanced route planning algorithm, reduce the idleness and repeated transportation in logistics, improve transportation efficiency, and thus reduce carbon emissions; Develop and promote the use of electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles and other low-carbon vehicles to reduce exhaust emissions and reduce carbon emissions; Reduce the use of unnecessary packaging materials, encourage the use of renewable and recyclable materials, reduce resource consumption and carbon emissions. Jingdong Logistics has deployed a total of about 20,000 new energy vehicles in 7 regions and more than 50 cities across the country, and makes extensive use of clean energy charging infrastructure, which can reduce about 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
3.3. Green Logistics Can Improve the Social Responsibility and Brand Reputation of Enterprises
As an important part of social responsibility, e-commerce enterprises need to actively assume corporate responsibility and reduce their impact on the environment. In this context, green logistics has become an effective means for e-commerce enterprises to carry out their social responsibilities and improve brand reputation. Logistics enterprises should start from management, strengthen the concept of green management, constantly optimize enterprise management, and implement green management fines so that enterprises can be recognized by the market with higher standards of service and higher social responsibility awareness in the fierce competition. In the process of promoting green logistics, enterprises can gradually establish a good environmental image, deepen consumers’ trust in the brand, so as to better promote the realization of sustainable development goals.
3.4. Green Logistics Also Has Significant Advantages in Reducing Costs
The implementation of green logistics management can effectively help enterprises reduce the loss of people, money and things, optimize the allocation of resources, maximize the power of resources, and convert it into economic benefits. The concept of green logistics is first reflected in the control of transportation costs, optimizing transportation routes and improving transportation efficiency. Secondly, it is also reflected in the efficiency of warehouse management, actively introducing modern equipment, engaging in sorting, packaging, transportation and other work, and reducing the input of enterprise manpower. Under the implementation of green logistics, transportation routes can be optimized, logistics processes can be automated, transportation costs and operating costs can be reduced, and logistics efficiency can be improved. At the same time, in the implementation process of green logistics, e-commerce enterprises can also use environmentally friendly packaging materials such as recycled cartons, reduce logistics costs, and reduce unnecessary waste to achieve the purpose of sustainable development.
In short, it is urgent to promote green logistics under the background of dual carbon. E-commerce enterprises should actively introduce green logistics technology, reduce carbon emissions in logistics from the source, improve cost efficiency, enhance competitiveness and corporate social responsibility awareness, promote the development of sustainable society and green logistics, and improve the environmental friendliness of the entire e-commerce industry.
4. Analysis of Green Logistics Mode under the Background of “Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality”
In the context of dual-carbon, green logistics has become the only way for the development of the e-commerce industry, but the e-commerce industry still faces some problems in the process of promoting green logistics:
4.1. The Management System Is Lagging Behind
In the process of scientific development of green logistics, a system is the most important guarantee, and also an important roadmap to provide guidance for the development of green logistics, which is of great significance for the sustainable development of green logistics management [10] . However, as the concept of green logistics management is a brand new concept, the construction of some systems related to it is not perfect, and there is no special policy system to provide protection, which leads to the spread of the green logistics management concept is hindered, and will seriously affect the normal development of logistics enterprises. At the same time, green logistics management often involves various links such as packaging, loading and unloading, and each participant in each link needs to have a certain distribution of benefits. However, due to the lack of a reliable system as a standard in this aspect, it is difficult for each participant in each link to reach an agreement on benefits. The result is that their degree of cooperation is greatly reduced, which will cause a lot of waste of resources, and ultimately lead to the management goal of green logistics can not be achieved.
4.2. Insufficient Government Guidance
Under the conditions of China’s market economy, the market plays a decisive role in resource allocation, and at the same time, the government needs to exert administrative power and macro-control. However, some local governments do not play their due role in the process of carrying out green logistics management in the logistics industry and do not guide logistics enterprises. We should provide policy support to those logistics companies that actively study new technology, so as to improve their enthusiasm for developing green logistics management technology, and finally make our green logistics management work can achieve sustainable development. In addition, due to the drawbacks of spontaneity and blindness in the market, if the government does not play a corresponding guiding role in the process of green logistics management, it is difficult for logistics enterprises to complete the sustainable development of green logistics management by themselves. Due to the lack of guidance and publicity from the government, the green logistics management concept of many logistics companies is mostly verbal, and enterprises and the public have not formed enough correct understanding of green logistics management.
4.3. The Overall Management Concept Is Relatively Backward
Green logistics is a brand-new logistics management concept, which is closely related to social development and national construction. In the process of development, it needs strong support and correct guidance from the state, and only in this way can green logistics be better developed throughout the country. However, the current stage of China’s green logistics management concept is relatively backward, the general lack of a correct understanding of the connotation of green logistics, the lack of effective control measures, resulting in China’s green logistics lack of goals, and slow development. In the operation and management of e-commerce enterprises, more attention is paid to business objectives such as how to increase revenue, while environmental protection and sustainable development goals may be ignored. Therefore, e-commerce enterprises must have the corresponding “green consciousness” in order to coordinate the green logistics promotion strategy and the core strategy of e-commerce enterprises and form a comprehensive and sustainable green business concept.
4.4. Technology Is Relatively Backward
Despite the technological evolution of green logistics, sustainable logistics solutions may still be technologically limited. Many Western developed countries have already realized the intelligent electronic data management of green logistics, but according to the actual situation in China, there is no special technical department to carry out the management of green logistics. In general, the development of China’s logistics industry is still in the initial stage, and there is still a gap of at least several decades compared with Western developed countries. Coupled with the restrictions of the industry development environment, there are very few logistics enterprises with a certain scale or enterprises that can participate in the international market competition, resulting in the development and use of logistics technology at a low level for a long time [11] . First of all, for this part of the packaging, it is necessary to choose some green and recyclable packaging, but the production of this packaging requires reliable technology to provide protection. Secondly, because China’s labor resources are relatively abundant, the labor price is relatively low, which leads to the current research on green logistics management in our country is relatively low, and this is also the main factor that the current stage of China’s green logistics management technology level is difficult to improve.
4.5. The Quality of Staff in the Green Logistics Management System Is Relatively Low
The construction of green logistics is a huge systematic project, involving a very broad scope, all the main bodies in the supply chain, all the enterprises, must participate in the construction of green logistics. In view of the specific development status of China’s logistics industry at the current stage, due to the considerable demand for talents in China, and the entry threshold of logistics enterprises is quite low, which leads to many employees in enterprises have not received special logistics management training, especially for some front-line employees. Many of them have a very low level of management knowledge and new technology, and they are not proficient in the use of modern information technology. In fact, due to historical and practical reasons, China’s logistics industry itself is very short of professional talents, and the talents who can conduct in-depth research and practice in green logistics are very rare [12] . Most of them have not received uniform and formal training, so they only do some simple packaging and transportation work according to the needs of managers in the process of work, and these jobs do not have very strict quality requirements. In this case, it is easy to appear that the relevant logistics personnel often quarrel with customers in the process of providing logistics services, which has a negative impact on the good image of the enterprise, resulting in the failure of the logistics enterprise to achieve sustainable development.
In short, the problems faced by green logistics under the dual-carbon background cannot be underestimated, and a variety of factors must be overcome to promote its implementation. E-commerce enterprises need to actively explore green logistics innovation management and technology research, strengthen multi-party collaboration, jointly promote environmental protection-related industrial upgrading, and achieve the goal of sustainable development of the industry.
5. Optimization Countermeasures of Green Logistics
5.1. Increase Policy Support for the Low-Carbon Transformation of the Logistics Industry
Under the “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” goal, a series of laws, regulations and policies have been introduced to promote the low-carbon development of logistics enterprises. In addition, ensuring the transformation of logistics enterprises to low-carbon development also requires corresponding financial support and encouragement policies, encouraging enterprises to spontaneously respond to the national low-carbon development and sustainable development policies, and enhancing their low-carbon transformation driving force. For enterprises that realize low-carbon logistics, necessary financial support and preferential loans can be provided to alleviate the shortage of funds faced by logistics enterprises in the process of low-carbon development transformation. At the same time, incentives such as tax breaks are given to industry to encourage more enterprises to carry out low-carbon transformation.
5.2. Unified Logistics Standards
The unified logistics standard is to solve a series of problems and challenges in the field of logistics, in order to promote the efficient operation and orderly development of logistics. Unified logistics standards can improve transportation efficiency: different regions and different enterprises may have their own independent logistics standards and norms, which will lead to information asymmetry, uncoordinated business processes and other problems, reducing logistics efficiency. Through unified logistics standards, logistics information can be facilitated and coordinated, and transportation efficiency can be improved. Non-uniform logistics standards will lead to process duplication, waste of resources and other problems, increasing the cost of logistics operations. Unified logistics standards can reduce the waste of resources and improve efficiency by unifying norms and processes, thus reducing logistics costs. Unified logistics standards promote information sharing and collaboration: logistics involves many links and participants, including suppliers, transportation companies, warehousing service providers, etc. Unified logistics standards can promote information sharing and collaboration among various participants, and improve the coordination and controllability of logistics business. It can also promote the development of international trade: In international trade, the logistics standards of different countries and regions are different, which may become trade barriers and obstacles. By developing a unified international logistics standard, trade barriers can be eliminated and the development of international trade can be promoted. To sum up, unified logistics standards can promote the standardized development of the logistics industry, improve transportation efficiency, reduce costs and promote information sharing is of great significance for the sustainable development of the logistics industry and economic prosperity.
5.3. Strengthen the Publicity and Awareness Training of Green Logistics Management Concepts
In the process of logistics enterprises developing green logistics, it is very important to publicize the concept of green logistics management. Only when the concept of green logistics is recognized and supported by the public and enterprises can it effectively promote the development of green logistics. It is necessary to carry out targeted publicity and education activities on green logistics knowledge, influence and skills [13] . For enterprises, it is necessary to carry out from the two aspects of managers and employees, so that they can take corresponding actions to practice the concept of green physics under the guidance of ideas, so as to promote the green development of the entire logistics industry. Influence enterprise managers and employees from all angles, so that they can see and listen more, and get the motivation to practice the concept of green logistics from the deeds of others. In terms of content, it is necessary to combine the dialectical publicity of excellent cases and cases to be improved, so that managers and employees can realize the serious consequences of ignoring green logistics, and pay attention to the actual economic, environmental and social benefits brought by green logistics. From the deepening understanding of theoretical propaganda to the hands-on practice of action encouragement and call, so that each manager and employee can strengthen their ideological understanding, in order to better guide each person to practice the concept of green physics from their own work and posts.
5.4. Improve Energy Structure and Supply Chain Collaboration
Comprehensively grasp the key and difficult points of green supply chain in all aspects of factor supply, production and manufacturing, distribution, sales and service, integrate supply chain resources, and realize the optimization of green sustainable supply chain. Various e-commerce enterprises can strengthen cooperation with the government, social organizations, relevant green suppliers and other parties, share green logistics costs and problems, and jointly explore green logistics construction plans. In the operation of modern enterprises, the effective management and integration of the supply chain is very important. Purchase volume is an important means for enterprises to convey information to downstream enterprises. Increasing the purchase volume will convey a signal to downstream manufacturers, that is, the demand is gradually increasing, and then the downstream enterprises are guided so that the advantages of information asymmetry can be gradually shown. In the process of developing a low-carbon economy, the above management measures can be transformed into an overall low-carbon development model. By shaping the brand image of low-carbon products, the market strength of logistics enterprises can be improved and the maximum profit can be obtained in the price competition. In the procurement process, the more low-carbon products purchased by the downstream logistics enterprises, the more the upstream logistics enterprises can achieve low-carbon operations and convey the future low-carbon consumption tendency to the downstream logistics enterprises.
5.5. Innovative Development of Low-Carbon Logistics Technology, Training of Low-Carbon Logistics Related Talents
In order to promote the realization of the “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” goal, logistics enterprises need to carry out technological innovation in the whole process of warehousing, transportation, distribution, etc., so the application and research and development of low-carbon logistics technology is very important. Development of green logistics technology: The use of big data, Internet of things, cloud computing and other technologies to develop green logistics management systems, support omnichannel sales and distribution, and provide users with more functional green logistics services. These are inseparable from logistics technology innovation and logistics personnel training. Therefore, as a very important place for theoretical research, colleges and universities should always combine the actual situation of the development of logistics enterprises and China’s national conditions in the process of training talents, strengthen the study of new theories of green logistics management, and train more high-quality talents and provide more innovative theories for the development of green logistics in our country [14] . It provides innovation for the development of low-carbon logistics.
In short, in order to promote the smooth promotion of green logistics and the sustainable development of e-commerce enterprises, a series of measures must be adopted, pay high attention to environmental protection issues, pay attention to energy saving and emission reduction, strengthen technological innovation and management tracking, promote the improvement of consumers’ environmental awareness, and achieve the realization of sustainable development goals.
6. Conclusions
The proposal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality will have a profound impact on the logistics industry and its related industries. In order to better promote the low-carbon development of the logistics industry, it is necessary to introduce reasonable green logistics policies, increase support for the low-carbon transformation of the logistics industry, vigorously improve the level of innovation in logistics science and technology, and improve the level of supply chain collaboration, so as to provide strong support for the realization of the “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” goal.