The health impacts of tobacco are widely known. What is less well known is the negative impact tobacco use has on the environment.

The production of tobacco products causes widespread environmental degradation beginning with the preparation of land for tobacco cultivation and continues on through the life-cycle of the tobacco products as they are manufactured, marketed and consumed.

A Special Hybrid Side Event during the Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions – Tobacco Product Waste: A Threat to the Environment took place on Friday 10 June 2022 from 1815 – 1945 hrs. CET.

The recording of the event can be accessed through this link (in English).

The presentations delivered during the side event can be accessed in the following links:

• Tobacco’s global environment footprint
• Economic Responsibility for the Human and Environmental Costs of Tobacco Product Waste
• Tobacco industry tactics around Single Use Plastics (SUP) policies and civil sociey efforts to countering these
• Tobacco is poisoning our planet

More resources and campaign assets can be found in this webpage for your use, as appropriate.

On the ocassion of the World No Tobacco Day, the WHO, the Secretariat of the WHO FCTC and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) are co-hosting a webinar, “Fighting tobacco product waste: Holding the tobacco industry accountable for its environmental footprint”.

The objectives of the webinar are:
•    To shed light on the global detrimental impact of tobacco product waste on environment, economy, societies, human health, biodiversity and water bodies.
•    To provide clarity on the policy concept of Extended Producer Responsibility and its practical application by presenting case studies.

Tobacco control experts and environmental advocates from around the world will join our roundtable discussion to connect the dots between Extended Producer Responsibility, tobacco industry liability and polluter pays principle. Panelists will discuss policy options for mitigating tobacco product waste, which will include case studies from Kigali and San Francisco.

The webinar will be held on Thursday, 2 June 2022, from 13:00 to 14:30 hrs (CEST). 

Additional information on the event and the registration link can be accessed through this link. 

The Parliament of Georgia adopted a set of amendments to the tobacco control legislation in May 2017 (Law No. 859-IIს), which foresaw the introduction of plain packaging for tobacco products. However, its implementation was postponed to 31 December 2022 through an amendment published in July 2017 (Law No. 1278-RS).

On 10 May 2022, the Parliament of Cabo Verde passed Law No. 8/X/2022 on tobacco control. The adoption of the Law brings the country closer to its long-term vision of fully aligning its tobacco control policies with the WHO FCTC, to which it is a Party since January 2006.

The new Law regulates most evidence-based demand and supply reduction measures, including: