World
British drugmaker AstraZeneca to spend $400 mln to plant 200 mln trees
British drugmaker AstraZeneca on Wednesday announced it would invest $400 million to plant over 200 million trees by 2030 as part of its strategy for reducing carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.
For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The commitment represents about $60 million a year, for one of the UK’s most valuable listed companies, which has a market capitalization of about $230 billion. AstraZeneca made about $44 billion in revenue in 2022.
Still, the new sustainability commitment is far larger than past ones. In 2020, the company announced it would plant and maintain more than 50 million trees by the end of 2025.
AstraZeneca announced earlier this month it would switch to biogas produced from cow manure and food waste in the US, to cut its carbon emissions there.
Much of the global pharmaceutical and biotech industry has yet to set targets for reducing carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, researchers have found.
Read more:
Scared of needles? Inhalable COVID-19 vaccine shows promise in new study
China strengthens COVID-19 prevention measures as cases rise in Shanghai
Moderna refused China’s request to reveal technology behind its COVID-19 vaccine