In common with most businesses, our potential impact on climate change arises from the greenhouse gas emissions from energy use at our facilities, from other in-house activities and from the various means of transport we use. However, we also face an additional challenge since some of our asthma therapy products use propellant gases that potentially contribute to ozone depletion and global warming. In recent years, we have been making good progress in reducing our emissions but our challenge has always been to sustain improvement as we continue to grow our business. More details about our reduction targets and performance to date are provided in the Global warming and Ozone depletion sections. Here we describe the background to the growing challenge and our planned next steps and future targets. Asthma is a common, often debilitating illness that can be alleviated by breathing in medication from a small aerosol called a pressurised metered dose inhaler (pMDI). Traditionally, these pMDIs relied upon chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) as propellants to deliver the medicine to patients. Over time, it was discovered that CFCs had the potential to damage the ozone layer and, more recently, they were identified as potent greenhouse gases. Prior to the adoption of the Montreal protocol in 1987, we began taking two lines of approach to the issue – firstly eliminating the problem at source by developing an inhaler that did not need a propellant gas, whilst simultaneously seeking an alternative propellant gas with zero ozone depletion potential for devices for those patients who still require a pMDI.
In 1987 we introduced the Turbuhaler dry powder inhaler, which has replaced 83% of our existing CFC-driven devices whilst still meeting the medical needs of the majority of patients. Following an exhaustive search and many years of development, we have now found alternative propellants for those patients for whom the Turbuhaler is unsuitable. The new propellant gases, which will be introduced into our remaining pMDI devices as soon as possible, have no ozone depletion potential and significantly less than half the global warming potential of the CFC they replace. Although these gases still have some impact on climate change, there is an international consensus that there is no safer alternative for patients.
We have also adopted a policy to replace the small amounts of ozone depleting chemicals that were being used in fire extinguishers and refrigeration at our sites. We will eliminate all such uses as soon as feasible and, at a minimum, in a timeframe consistent with legislative requirements.
In the mid 1990s, the dominant climate change issue became the release of greenhouse gases (GHG), which led to the establishment of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. Since the merger of Astra and Zeneca in 1999, we have been committed to tracking, reporting on and reducing the releases of all the greenhouse gases associated with our business, using the internationally agreed GHG protocol as a basis for our reporting. We made these data available to CR rating agencies, including the Carbon Disclosure Project and since 2001 have shared it with the public on our website. Prior to the merger, the combined greenhouse gas emissions from the heritage companies had already been reduced by 33% from their 1990 value as a result of actions taken to reduce ozone-depleting substances. In 2001, we began to take action firstly to reduce the rate of growth and then to stabilise the emissions of CO2 from our facilities. This was achieved by a combination of energy efficiency measures, investment in combined heat and power plants and purchasing energy from low or zero carbon sources. By 2003 the upward trend in emissions from these sources had been arrested and by 2005 emissions had fallen to their 2001 level. By 2007, our absolute greenhouse gas emissions from all sources (including products) had fallen by 67% compared to 1990. (The Kyoto Protocol target is a 5% reduction by 2012).
The process of discovering, developing, manufacturing and distributing innovative medicines to patients is increasingly complex and uses more and more energy, both in our facilities and in travel and transport. Controlling transport-related emissions remains a significant challenge as we continue to expand our business activities. Although we have invested in electronic communication systems and expanded their use, this has made only a limited impact on emissions from these sources. We are now investing heavily in advanced driver training to improve both safety and efficiency associated with road travel and we are increasingly using a range of hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles.
Since 2000, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with our products has declined as we are phasing out CFC-based pMDIs and our market share of these products has changed due to patent expiries. During 2006, however, we received approval to market a new asthma treatment, Symbicort, in the US, where over 30 million people suffer from this debilitating disease. Our new therapy provides rapid and effective asthma control in a pMDI containing hydrofluoroalkane (HFA) propellant. The launch of this new therapy in the US, the world’s largest pharmaceutical market, will inevitably lead to an increase in emissions of HFAs as more and more patients benefit from the new medicine.
Despite the potential climate change implications, we believe that the expanded
treatment choice and potential benefits that Symbicort pMDI offers asthma sufferers outweigh the potential impact it will have on the environment.
We have identified areas of our business where further improvements can be made to reduce our emissions of global warming gases. These include, amongst other things: Implementation of further energy conservation programmes, particularly
related to fume cupboards in laboratories. Implementation of green technology principles in our process design. Further investment in greener energy supply from external power suppliers. Exploring the potential for further investment in low carbon and renewable energy options at our sites. Investment in ‘cleaner’ vehicles.
Our fundamental challenge continues to be reducing our emissions at a pace that equals, or exceeds our rate of growth. We will continue to work hard to manage our impact, and our current climate change target aims 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. Although the greenhouse gas emissions from our business operations will continue to fall, as a result of the launch of Symbicort pMDI in 2007, we will not be able to continue to achieve the reductions of total greenhouse gases (including emissions from products) that we have delivered each year since 2000. Our pursuit of our 2010 target will be done without compromising our ability to provide new inhalation therapies that bring benefit for patients. Therefore the climate change 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 pMDIs, when compared with 2005. Ozone Depleting Potential
emissions 1990-2010 (tonnes) 
Global Warming Potential:
emissions 1990-2010 (million tonnes)
The content of this page was externally assured by Bureau Veritas, February 2008
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