![]() ![]() However, the complexity of medicine supply chains poses specific challenges in acquiring and reporting information about the environmental impacts. The first steps towards net zero include establishing targets (such as the Science Based Targets initiative’s Net-Zero Standard) and understanding and quantifying the emissions across the supply chain. To comply with the Paris Agreement’s target to limit global average temperature to 1.5☌ above pre-industrial temperatures, the pharmaceutical industry would need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 59% by 2025. For companies that do not produce high emission products (eg inhalers) at point-of-use, the material extraction and processing comprise an even greater proportion of pharmaceutical carbon footprint (~78%) Within the pharmaceutical industry, typically the majority of emissions comes from the supply chain (raw materials and their processing). Emissions mappingĮnd-to-end CO 2 mapping of the medicines manufacturing process showing the proportion of CO 2 emissions at each stage In the UK, the pharmaceutical carbon footprint makes up about 22% of National Health Service (NHS) emissions, equating to 1% of the UK’s overall total. Products such as inhalers or those that use hot water to dissolve medication have very large carbon footprints (inhalers account for about 30% of GlaxoSmithKline’s emissions). Surprisingly, pharma is 13% more polluting than the automotive industry despite being 28% smaller. The pharmaceutical industry produces an estimated equivalent of 52 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in greenhouse gas emissions every year, accounting for around 2% of industrial greenhouse gas emissions. For example, AstraZeneca’s Ambition Zero Carbon strategy, which aims to be carbon negative across the entire value chain by 2030. Encouragingly, the majority of big pharma companies now have ambitious net zero targets, strategies and initiatives in place. However, the pharmaceutical industry also has a role to play. ![]() Energy, automotive and foundation industries (those producing raw materials such as metals, chemicals and cement) are typically under the most scrutiny. In the wake of Cop26, fresh new pledges to achieve net zero have come thick and fast. ![]()
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