Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, and the consequences for people's health are becoming increasingly visible. This summer's extreme heat was another reminder of how closely our health and the health of our planet are connected, from heat-related deaths, the spread of vector-borne diseases and hospitalisations to growing pressure on health systems.

At EFPIA we recognise that caring for people means doing our part to care for the planet too.

Our industry has a responsibility to reduce its environmental footprint while continuing to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines to patients. Across our sector, companies are making significant investments in cleaner energy sources at their sites, more sustainable manufacturing and supply processes and the development of lower-carbon products and packaging. These investments reflect a long-term commitment to reducing our environmental impact while continuing to meet patients' needs.

And we are seeing results.

Since 2020, EFPIA has surveyed its members on their greenhouse gas emissions and climate policies. The latest results from 2025, show a clear downward trend in Scope 1 and 2 emissions[1], driven in particular by the rapid shift to renewable electricity. In just five years, renewable electricity consumption among surveyed EFPIA member companies has tripled. Around 75% of companies now have comprehensive climate targets covering all three emission scopes, demonstrating an increasingly structured approach to decarbonisation and more than two-thirds of surveyed EFPIA companies had committed to decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, with 90% aligning their targets to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) guidelines.

Behind these figures are concrete investments across the sector. Takeda, for example, has invested €14.5 million in a biomass heating plant in Germany to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. GSK is supporting new solar projects in Spain, expected to cover 50% of GSK’s electricity consumption across Europe. Bayer has developed a new manufacturing facility in Germany using innovative heating and cooling technologies designed to reduce emissions by more than 90%. Merck has installed a heat pump powered by green electricity that recovers waste heat from the chilling system to warm up water, reducing the site’s Scope 1 emissions by nearly 25%. AbbVie has installed more than 2,300 solar panels at its manufacturing site in Italy, while AstraZeneca has reduced its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 88% since 2015.

Companies are also rethinking how medicines are developed and delivered. Chiesi is investing more than €400 million in lower-carbon inhalers, while LEO Pharma has developed new logistics solutions that allow more products to be shipped by sea rather than air. Sanofi is developing more sustainable vaccine packaging, while Roche has improved a manufacturing process for a cancer medicine, reducing its carbon emissions per kilogram of active pharmaceutical ingredient by 35%. Boehringer Ingelheim has supported more than 85 environmental projects worldwide, and UCB, Lundbeck, Novo Nordisk and Bristol Myers Squibb are amongst companies working with suppliers to accelerate decarbonisation. Through the Pharmaceutical LCA Consortium, companies including Johnson & Johnson, MSD, Novartis and Pfizer are working to develop harmonised approaches to measuring the environmental impact of medicines.

Collaboration is crucial to addressing our shared climate challenge, and pharmaceutical companies have partnered with other stakeholders to develop Product Category Rules for Life Cycle Assessments, which includes harmonising the methods for assessing Product Carbon Footprints for medicines[2]. Harmonised standards are critical for increasing understanding of our footprint – and should be a catalyst for making further progress, faster.

Tackling climate change and improving people's health are both long-term challenges grounded in science. And both are too important to lose momentum. I know from the work happening across our industry that meaningful change takes time, investment and persistence. I also see the determination to keep moving forward, reducing our environmental impact and working with others to address challenges that no single sector can solve alone.

As world leaders gather at COP31, our industry remains committed to playing its part. We have made progress, but there is more to do, and we are determined to build on what we have achieved.

References:

[1] Definition of Scope 1 + 2 emission The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard classifies a company’s GHG emissions into three ‘scopes’. Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from owned or controlled sources. Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy. - Scope 3 -   emissions are all indirect emissions (not included in Scope 2) that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, including both upstream and downstream emissions.  https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/standards_supporting/FAQ.pdf 

[2] EFPIA supports the adoption of “PAS 2090:2025, Pharmaceutical products – Product category rules for environmental life cycle assessments” the first publicly available specification to establish a unified approach to Product Category Rules (PCR) for conducting LCAs6 in our industry as well as to harmonize the methods for conducting Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs) of pharmaceutical products. Further details can be found here: Advancing Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Pharmaceuticals through Standardisation and Harmonisation of Product Carbon Footprint Assessment