Will governments make Big Tobacco pay and kick Big Polluters out from Treaty meets?

Shobha Shukla / Bobby Ramakant *

As intergovernmental Treaty meetings open on climate (UNFCCC) and tobacco control (WHO FCTC), there is a growing call to make Big Tobacco pay and kick Big Polluters out of these Treaty negotiations. Experts have underpinned the critical importance of firewalling intergovernmental health and climate policy negotiations from corporate interference and called for advancing progress towards holding abusive corporations to account.

The secretariat of World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC – the legally binding global tobacco treaty) had warned the governments to stay vigilant because tobacco industry is targeting the intergovernmental FCTC treaty negotiations starting on Monday, November 17th. FCTC is the first WHO corporate accountability and public health treaty ratified by 183 countries (including the European Union).

Backbone FCTC Articles 5.3 and 19

2025 marks 20 years since WHO FCTC came into force. Professor (Dr) Judith Mackay, Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control of Hong Kong, WHO Senior Policy Advisor and Special Advisor, Global Centre for Good Governance in Tobacco Control (GGTC) underlined the importance of backbone Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC, which obligates the ratifying governments to stop tobacco industry interference in public policy.

“If a government, for example, introduces new tobacco pack warnings, then they have to tell the industry that ‘these are our new pack warnings. This is what you have to do. It is a directive.’ Tobacco industry is told what to do. But in terms of formulating the policy, they are out of it.”

We must not think that ‘tobacco industry is undefeatable’ because it is not

“Legally-binding global tobacco treaty (WHO FCTC) is a visionary treaty, not only because it includes FCTC Article 5.3 (to stop tobacco industry interference in public policy) and conflict of interest provisions, but also because it includes a remarkable provision (FCTC Article 19) on liability of tobacco industry. FCTC Article 19 empowers countries that have ratified the treaty to leverage upon it to advance legislations at the national level, either civil, criminal, administrative or other forms of liability laws, and hold tobacco industry accountable,” said Daniel Dorado Torres, a noted lawyer and Tobacco Campaign Director, Corporate Accountability.

“In the last 20 years since FCTC came into force, governments have developed several tools to enable revisiting of their national legislations to hold industry accountable. One such tool is FCTC Article 19 Civil Liability Toolkit. WHO FCTC Secretariat has also maintained an experts’ database so that governments that have ratified the treaty can receive consultative guidance as required on liability of tobacco corporations,” said Dorado.

World Conference on Tobacco Control 2025 also had adopted a strong Declaration on the need to advance liability of tobacco industries.

“At upcoming COP11 to WHO FCTC intergovernmental meet next month in Geneva, we hope that governments will adapt a report that provides more than 30 recommendations on how governments could use or extend their civil, criminal, administrative, human rights and other forms of liability to challenge industry’s abuses,” shared Dorado.

Agrees Dr Mackay: “FCTC Article 19 on liability has been instrumental in establishing legal defences in the face of a very aggressive industry. We have had some remarkable successes. For example, Uruguay defeated Philip MorrisInternational (biggest tobacco industry globally) in a legal challenge against Uruguay’s strong packaging regulations. Public health won before profits. We must not think that they are ‘undefeatable.’ They are, what in China we would call, paper tigers.”

But it has been a tough fight to protect public health against the tobacco industry. When Australia introduced plain packaging on all tobacco products in 2011, Australia had to fight 3 legal challenges against the tobacco industry: firstly, constitutional; secondly, with regards to bilateral trade agreement; and thirdly, related to World Trade Organization.

Tobacco industry (like Big Food or Big Oil) manoeuvres to hijack the political and legislative process.

Nepal continues to battle tobacco industry for protecting public health

“Because of tobacco industry interference, Nepal’s adoption of comprehensive tobacco control law got delayed. Eventually, Nepal enacted a comprehensive tobacco control law in 2010 with large graphic health warning that was 75% (largest at that time) and complete ban of tobacco advertising. Nepal had to battle tobacco industry in the court for almost three years before this law could be implemented in 2013,” said Dr Tara Singh Bam, Asia Pacific Director (Tobacco Control), Vital Strategies and Board Director of Asia Pacific Cities Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT).

In 2015, Nepal government increased the size of pictorial health warning from 75 to 90%. But it took almost seven years to win legal case against tobacco industry and implement it in 2022. “In 2025 Nepal government increased the size of pictorial health warnings to 100% (both sides of tobacco packs) - largest in the world. This is a milestone public health policy, but Nepal faced significant challenges from the tobacco industry. This had to be implemented from 1st August 2025 but due to tobacco industry lawsuit, its implementation is still pending,” said Dr Bam.

Blockers to progress at UNFCCC and FCTC are the same

“COP30 to UNFCCC and COP11 to FCTC are about corporations whose product and conduct, impacts people and our planet. Tobacco smoking causes death. Tobacco cultivation also harms our planet. Drivers of climate change are the big fossil fuel #BigOil industries that are causing climate change and impacting public health too. When governments globally try to regulate these abusive corporations, they are confronted with similar industry tactics, be it Big Oil or Big Tobacco,” said Akinbode Matthew Oluwafemi, Executive Director, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa – CAPPA, Nigeria.

“These abusive industries do everything to avoid liability and stop UNFCCC and FCTC from getting implemented and achieve its original objectives. Governments go to intergovernmental meets of UNFCCC and WHO FCTC but find a number of industry representatives sitting at the table either by proxy or by direct representation. We need stringent policies enacted to ensure that abusive corporations like Big Tobacco or Big Nicotine and Big Oil cannot capture public policy,” said Bode.

Agrees Rachel Rose Jackson, Director: Climate Research & Policy, Corporate Accountability (United States) - Kick Big Polluters Out Coalition: “It is important to note that we do not see two intergovernmental meets of UNFCCC (on climate policy) and FCTC (on public health and tobacco control) as separate from each other, because, in fact, they are deeply intertwined - and so is climate and health justice.”

“Those who block critical necessary actions to address climate change or public health and broader systemic crisis are the same in both Treaty spaces (UNFCCC and FCTC) – abusive industry. They use the same playbook and same tactics and deceptive lies in both multilateral spaces in order to distract, delay, defeat or block progress. It is important to also underpin that solutions to advance accountability and liability are also the same. But unlike FCTC, which has Article 5.3 (to stop industry interference) and Article 19 (on liability), we never had such measures in UNFCCC despite it being negotiated for nearly three decades,” said Jackson.

“So, from the very conception of UNFCCC, Big Polluters have been deeply embedded in its development. This is why UNFCCC has failed entirely to galvanise the global action we urgently need to address the climate crisis. Like Big Tobacco, Big Polluters too have rigged the very system that is meant to address climate change. Last year alone more than 1700 fossil fuel lobbyists flooded the climate talks in Baku. Year after year we have seen some of the world’s largest Polluter corporations bankrolling these climate talks. It is no wonder why climate talks have failed year after year. And it is also a no wonder why meaningful science- and evidence-backed actions are failing to come out of climate talks,” added Rachel Rose Jackson. “Millions of lives and livelihoods are at stake.”

This is why over 450 organisations and networks collectively representing millions of people around the world, joined hands to launch Kick Big Polluters Out Coalition. “We have been campaigning and calling for strong measures on liability and accountability in the climate treaty space. We are demanding that ability of Big Polluters to write the rules of climate action must come to an end. No more corporate sponsorship. Full stop,” said Jackson.

Inspired by FCTC and FCTC Article 5.3, for the very first time, all non-governmental participants of climate treaty are publicly required to disclose who is paying for their participation and confirm that their objectives are aligned with UNFCCC and its associated instruments. “This is a huge victory because for the first time in 30 years anything is being done to address or even begin to acknowledge Big Polluters’ influence,” said Jackson.