Our approach

In common with most businesses, our greenhouse gas emissions arise from the energy we use at our facilities, from other in-house activities; from the various means of transport we use; and, indirectly, from the activities of our suppliers. We focus primarily on reducing this total carbon footprint.

In common with other pharmaceutical companies, our carbon footprint is also affected by some of our respiratory therapies, and specifically our pressurised metered dose inhaler (pMDI) products. Modern propellants, such as hydrofluoroalkanes (HFAs), have no ozone depletion potential and a third or less of the global warming potential of the CFCs they replace, but they are still greenhouse gases. In 1987 we introduced Turbuhaler, a dry powder inhaler technology that does not use propellants and which has now replaced the majority of our pMDI devices whilst still meeting the medical needs of most patients. There are, however, some patients for whom the Turbuhaler is unsuitable. We will continue to provide the expanded treatment choices, including pMDIs, to these patients and their clinicians, as long as there is a medical need and no alternatives to HFA propellant gases that are safer for patients and the environment.

OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS

We have climate change-related targets that guide our activity worldwide. These objectives are framed in our global Safety, Health and Environment objectives and our Corporate Responsibility Priority Action Plan. Progress is reviewed throughout the year, including at the Senior Executive Team (SET) and AstraZeneca Board levels.

Our current targets aim to ensure that our absolute emissions in 2010 will be no greater than they were at the start of the decade and 55% less than they were in 1990. This means that the objectives approved by the AstraZeneca Board in 2005 require very substantial efforts to be made across our business to produce, by 2010, an absolute reduction of 12% in global warming emissions from all sources other than our products, when compared with 2005. We have been making some good progress in recent years and we continue to drive the implementation of programmes designed to manage our carbon footprint in key areas of our business activity. Read about our performance.

We are currently in the process of implementing a new SET-approved strategy for improving the sustainability and resource efficiency of our business, including new objectives and targets that will take us beyond 2010 and drive our continued commitment in this important area.

SUPPORT FOR A CO-ORDINATED GLOBAL EFFORT

We believe that the most effective response to the challenges associated with climate change can only be achieved through a concerted global effort. The world community should unite through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to pursue an appropriate and comprehensive response effort to address two key and interconnected challenges: mitigating global warming and adapting our societies to some inevitable changes. This must:

• Provide an effective framework to encourage industry to participate in the invention, development and use of low-carbon and adaptive solutions through, for example, appropriate and coherent financial, tax and trade policies. This should include use of market-based mechanisms that help internalise the true cost of carbon and that promote the development and use of low carbon technologies and long-term solutions.
• Avoid a gap between the end of the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period in 2012 and the entry into force of a new, multilateral framework.
• Recognise the differentiated roles, needs and capabilities of different world regions and embrace various regional and national efforts such as the Asia Pacific Partnership, G8 and EU climate programmes.
• Embrace the need for: 1) secure, affordable and sustainable energy supplies to advance social and economic goals; and 2) improved access to safe water and sanitation in furthering health and wellbeing; which are consistent with the UN Millennium Development Goals.

We using this thinking to inform our own strategies and will remain actively engaged in the global debate on the part that business can play in such a response.

TRANSPARENCY 

We are committed to transparency and constructive communication with our stakeholders on this topic. For example, we make detailed reports available to our stakeholders through our Annual Report and this Responsibility section of our website, through disclosure to the Carbon Disclosure Project and in other formats. We use the WRI/WBCSD “Greenhouse Gas Protocol”  to build our emissions inventory and follow the G3 Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to enhance the relevance and transparency of our reporting to our stakeholders.