By Maggie Fick

LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca has opened a plant to produce biogas from organic waste that will ensure by the end of this year all of its research and development and drug manufacturing in Britain is powered by clean energy, it said on Thursday.

The plant, operated through a 15-year agreement between AstraZeneca and UK-based biomethane producer Future Biogas, will supply 100 gigawatt hours (GW) of renewable energy per year for AstraZeneca's three R&D and manufacturing sites in the country, equivalent to 20% of its total gas consumption globally.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

Many big companies have been dropping commitments to cutting emissions and switching to renewable energy as cost-cutting has become a major priority and U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the White House has shifted the focus to fossil fuels.

In Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government is pushing to decarbonise the country's power network with the help of private investment.

AstraZeneca's new plant in Lincolnshire, eastern England, is not subsidised by the UK government.

The company says its switch to renewable energy in the UK is part of a broader commitment to use 100% renewable energy for all of its own operations globally by the end of this year.

Its commitment to a goal of net zero emissions by 2045, which it set in 2020, also depends on its suppliers using green power.

CONTEXT

AstraZeneca entered a similar long-term agreement in 2023 with a U.S. company, Vanguard Renewables, that enabled it to transition to biogas from natural gas and cut its emissions across its U.S. research and manufacturing sites.

The company aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions it directly produces by 98% by 2026, from a 2015 baseline.

Though Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk has set similar targets to reduce its carbon footprint, it said earlier this month that its emissions grew 23% in 2024 and will keep rising through the end of the decade as it boosts production of its blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy.

(Reporting by Maggie Fick; editing by Barbara Lewis)