When we think of the most polluting sectors — those most responsible for accelerating climate change — we think of the automotive industry or the livestock sector, not the pharmaceutical sector. And yet the latter would appear to have a serious environmental impact, proportionally even worse than that caused by global vehicle manufacturing. This is what emerged from the study Carbon footprint of the global pharmaceutical industry and relative impact of its major players, published in the journal Journal of cleaner productions.

48 tonnes of CO2 per million

The researchers analysed the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the pharmaceutical sector for every million dollars earned, from 2015 onwards. They found that for every million dollars, drug-manufacturing companies emit, on average, 48.55 tonnes of CO2. These emissions are 55 per cent higher than those produced by the automotive sector, which emits 31.4 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere for every million dollars earned. According to the researchers' calculations, the value of the pharmaceutical market is 28 per cent lower than that of the automotive sector, yet it is 13 per cent more polluting.

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An innovative study

The study conducted by Lotfi Belkhir and Ahmed Elmeligi, researchers at the Faculty of Engineering at Canada's McMaster University, is remarkably the first study to analyse the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the pharmaceutical industry. Getting a clear picture of the sector's actual environmental impact is no simple matter, since among the more than two hundred companies that make up the global pharmaceutical market, only 25 have consistently reported data on their direct and indirect emissions over the past five years, and of these just 15 companies have published such data since 2012.

How polluting are pharmaceuticals

In 2015, according to the study, pharmaceutical companies were responsible for emitting 52 million tonnes of CO2 (compared to 46.4 million tonnes produced by the automotive sector). To calculate their impact, the scientists assessed the direct emissions generated by companies' operations and the indirect emissions generated by purchased electricity. Among those analysed, the most polluting company by far is the German giant Bayer, which in 2015 was responsible for emitting 9.7 million tonnes of CO2 on revenues of 51.4 billion dollars. That amounts to approximately 189 tonnes of CO2 for every million dollars earned, whereas Roche, for example, emitted 14 tonnes per million.

What the pharmaceutical sector must do

The researchers finally estimated how much the pharmaceutical sector would need to reduce its emissions in order to meet the climate targets set by the Paris Agreement. To limit the rise in average global temperature and keep it below the agreed two degrees Celsius, the entire sector would need to reduce its emissions by 59 per cent by 2025.