In early July, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a vital reminder that tobacco's global toll remains concerningly high despite constituting one of the most preventable causes of death. Days before, the global health body published its 'WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2025,' which highlights the ongoing shortcomings in tobacco control undermining many countries' considerable 'tobacco-free future' progress.
In parallel, WHO Europe has updated its Tobacco Control Playbook to address one of the industry's most hotly contested issues: graphic health warnings and plain packaging. These measures, strongly supported in the global report, have long been attacked by the tobacco industry, which falsely claims they are ineffective, hurt retailers, and fuel illicit trade.
As the WHO rightly stresses, governments must act decisively, in line with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), to resist industry interference, strengthen enforcement, and invest in proven tools needed to close persistent tobacco control gaps—life-saving measures that reduce healthcare costs and protect future generations.
A Mixed Global Picture
While its devastating and entirely avoidable health impact is widely known, tobacco use continues to kill over 7 million people annually while draining more than $1.4 trillion from the global economy through healthcare costs and lost productivity. Yet, according to the WHO's new report, there is a silver lining: more than 6.1 billion people—three-quarters of the world's population—are now covered by at least one of the WHO's recommended tobacco control measures, such as tax hikes and ad bans.
Four countries—Brazil, Mauritius, the Netherlands, and Türkiye—now implement all six of the WHO's 'MPOWER' measures at best-practice level, while seven others, including Ireland and Spain, are just one measure away. In recent years, the most dramatic progress has come in packaging: 110 countries representing 62% of the global population now require graphic labels on cigarette packs—up from just nine in 2007—and 25 countries have adopted plain packaging, with Europe accounting for over half of this group.
Still, serious gaps remain in the world's tobacco-free journey. Big Tobacco is largely responsible for stalled progress in key areas, with its lobbyists spreading false narratives to dissuade robust, WHO FCTC-aligned tobacco control policies. Indeed, research from Australia, which implemented plain packaging and large health warnings in 2012, has overwhelmingly refuted the tobacco industry's sensationalist claims that this measure would trigger an illicit trade boom by simplifying the counterfeiting process.
What's more, the Australian study is consistent with global findings showing no rise in illicit cigarettes or unbranded tobacco. On the contrary, prominent graphic packaging warnings have been found to support anti-smuggling enforcement by making illegal products easier to spot, particularly when paired with tax stamps.
WHO Spotlight: Côte d'Ivoire
In the face of the tobacco industry's pernicious lobbying, several countries are moving forward with graphic warnings, plain packaging, and other key policy tools to tackle tobacco usage and protect their citizens. Among the group of rising stars is Côte d'Ivoire, whose commitment to this global fight recently earned it the prestigious 'WHO Anti-Tobacco Prize.' Awarded in Abidjan on 4 June 4, the WHO prize recognised both its national tobacco control programme (PNLTA) and Dr. Brou Dieudonné Koffi for their leadership in advancing tobacco control domestically and across Africa.
Côte d'Ivoire's progress is especially striking among youth aged 13 to 15, where smoking rates have fallen from 13.7% to just 4.5%. These results reflect bold policy choices, including a full advertising ban, smoke-free public spaces, and the introduction of plain packaging. As spotlighted in the WHO's new report, Côte d'Ivoire has, since 2022, joined the ranks of countries reaching the highest level of achievement for large graphic health warnings—alongside the likes of Indonesia, Uzbekistan, and Oman—and is equally one of the few nations to have recently implemented plain packaging.
Beyond its major progress in packaging, Abidjan has equally been recognised by the WHO as among the highest-achieving countries for national tobacco control programmes. Crucially, Côte d'Ivoire has opted for a proven track and trace solution to combat illicit tobacco—one that notably helped inspire the WHO FCTC Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (ITP Protocol). In line with the Protocol's requirements, the system, operated by Swiss provider SICPA, is entirely free from tobacco industry involvement—a safeguard made necessary by the industry's well-documented history of manipulating traceability systems worldwide to support its commercial interests.
By implementing a tobacco industry-independent solution that uses both physical and digital technologies, Côte d'Ivoire's government has positioned itself as a model of WHO-aligned tobacco control, protecting public health above industry profits and setting an example for others to follow. In addition to its recent WHO award, Abidjan's tobacco traceability progress was recognised by the IMF in an April report as key in bolstering the country's fiscal governance—highlighting the alignment of public health imperatives with key fiscal governance policies as well as the efficiency of excise duties when shielded from vested interests.
Progress Lagging in Europe
Unfortunately, certain countries and regions are failing to match Abidjan's inspiring path. Despite its impressive progress in areas such as plain packaging and strong tobacco tax regimes in some of its countries, Europe's tobacco control agenda remains fragmented and incomplete. Both Côte d'Ivoire and the EU ratified the ITP Protocol in 2016, yet the latter inexplicably continues to rely on a traceability system that directly violates its provisions, involving operators with long-standing financial and technological ties to the tobacco industry.
Last year, MEPs, NGOs, and leading academics outlined in a White Paper presented to the European Parliament how transparency failures within the European Commission have allowed Big Tobacco lobbyists to influence traceability policy behind closed doors. The consequences have been severe: illicit trade in the EU has risen continuously since the system's implementation in 2019, with the bloc losing up to €20 billion in tax revenue every year. What's more, recent illicit trade data from the UK—where a similar industry-linked system is in place—shows equally troubling results.
Encouragingly, years of work by the anti-tobacco coalition are starting to pay off, with momentum building to reform the EU's outdated, industry-influenced frameworks. As of last month, the review of the Tobacco Excise Tax Directive—long delayed by the industry—is finally underway, aiming to raise taxes in low-price member states that fuel cross-border trade. Next, the EU must advance the review of the Tobacco Products Directive to adopt an industry-independent traceability system and introduce country-specific quotas to curb Europe's industry-fueled parallel trade.
The path to a tobacco-free future is already mapped out—what is now needed is the political will to follow it. The WHO's latest report and updated Playbook offer governments both a warning and a toolkit, underscoring how delaying action only benefits Big Tobacco. Taking inspiration from tobacco control leaders such as Brazil, Indonesia and Côte d'Ivoire, countries worldwide must step up enforcement and fully implement the FCTC—the cost of inaction is counted in lives.
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