Environmental sustainability in pharma – A view on Pharma’s progress towards positive impact

Over the past couple of decades, since the Kyoto protocol in 1997, broader movements towards reducing the effects of climate change have been introduced by nations aimed at all industries. The latest evolution of this movement is the Paris Agreement, ratified in 2015, that specifically aims to keep global warming to well below 2C and preferably to no more than 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels by 2050 (1). The EU is aiming to go a step further with its European Green deal, introduced in late 2019, where it has committed to become the first climate neutral continent by 2050 and has allocated over €1tn to its objectives. These initiatives aim to provide a cleaner environment, affordable renewable energy, resilient industry, longer lasting products and a better quality of life (2).

There is a strong argument that health systems as a whole should be frontrunners in limiting the impact of climate change, as it strikes at the heart of population health: a changing climate will drive poorer outcomes, increase mortality and health inequity. These can arise from multiple causes, among them severe weather, extreme heat, a changing ecology of disease vectors, increased allergens and geopolitical conflicts over scarce resources.