Putting Health at the Heart of COP28

Decarbonising healthcare and health systems

The climate crisis is putting greater pressure on already stretched health systems and jeopardising the provision of basic healthcare. Paradoxically, for a sector whose goal is to keep people well, the healthcare sector is contributing to the problem, responsible for approximately 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).¹

Urgent, transformative action is needed to mitigate and adapt to climate change and protect the health of people, society and our planet. Collectively, we must rethink the delivery of healthcare and build resilient health systems that are more equitable and transitioning to net zero. No one business, government, or organisation can do it alone, we need to work together at pace and at scale.

Chaired by our CEO, Pascal Soriot, the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Health Systems Task Force is a public-private partnership, recognised for its collective efforts to accelerate the decarbonsiation of health systems. Ahead of COP28, the Task Force shared how it is progressing renewable power sourcing models in China and India, and developing a framework to measure the environmental impact of medicines to decarbonise healthcare.

Following the science to become net zero

Our commitment to driving change across the health sector complements our commitment to progressing on our own bold climate and sustainability goals. Through our flagship Ambition Zero Carbon programme, we are focused on delivering deep decarbonisation across our company:

• We are reducing emissions from our global operations and fleet (Scope 1 and 2) by 98% by 2026. Core to these emissions reductions is our energy transition to 100% renewables, including our innovative clean heat partnerships to supply our UK and US sites with green gas.
• We’re investing in biodiversity and nature. Earlier this year, we announced an expansion of our AZ Forest programme, with the landmark commitment to plant 200 million trees across six continents by 2030, to drive climate action, restore nature and promote biodiversity, and build ecological and community resilience. During COP28, we announced a pledge to plant up to six million trees in western Kenya
• We’re also engaging across our value chain to measure and reduce our Scope 3 emissions. For example, our work to reduce the carbon footprint of our respiratory inhalers is already underway and represents an important step towards achieving our Ambition Zero Carbon goal.
• We are co-founders of the Converge, a collaborative supply chain initiative to accelerate My Green Lab certification of labs across our value chain. Announced at COP28, the initiative will harness the power of collective action to certify labs in alignment with the Race to Zero’s breakthrough outcome that 95% of all labs are My Green Lab certified at the highest level by 2030. Working in collaboration with My Green Lab, we are already embedding a culture of sustainable science across our organisation, with 100 lab spaces around the world My Green Lab certified. 

Through individual and collective action, the private sector has a critical role to play in limiting planetary warming in line with the Paris Agreement and making a positive difference to build a healthier future for everyone.

Shining a spotlight on the interconnection between the climate and health

Across the company, from our senior leadership to our graduates and apprentices, we are deeply committed to driving bold climate action. In the film “Can medicine be made more sustainably?”, produced for AstraZeneca by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions, our CEO Pascal Soriot and supply chain apprentice Kate Stevenson reflect on the climate-health nexus and their motivations to prioritise sustainability efforts and advance collective climate action.

The film showcases how we are decarbonising the development, manufacture and delivery of medicines and how we’re working collaboratively to drive sustainable change.