On the 5th of December 2023 11:30a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (CET), during UNCTAD E-week, UNEP is co-organizing the session ‘Greening E-Commerce: Tools and Frameworks towards Shaping the Digital Economy’, along with the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and Germany Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The Digital Revolution has led to significant changes at an unprecedented speed in terms of how business is conducted, and goods and services are being traded. E-commerce can have positive effects on countries’ economic development and has witnessed tremendous growth over the last few years. At the same time, the uptake in e-commerce would need to go hand in hand with global goals on environment and climate change, hence without compromising a green transformation.

The session will look at challenges and solutions that are being developed. Practical examples will showcase environmental concerns affecting businesses, but also shed light on opportunities in the areas of logistics, packaging, and energy use of data centers. How can we make sure that additional environmental standards for purposes of “greening e-commerce” do not discourage developing countries – and more specifically SMEs and MSMEs – from engaging in international trade? The session will discuss how public and private sector could address main challenges and harness solutions.

Lastly, the session will look at (future) multilateral frameworks for rules and standards on e-commerce and consider to what extent these can be made compatible with environmental as well as developmental goals.