Target 3.a: Strengthen tobacco control
Strengthen the implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in all countries, as appropriate
Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Why shareholder democracy is necessary
Tobacco kills more than 7 million people a year. WHO states there is a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between the industry's interests and public health. The FCTC has 182 parties plus the European Union, but only 41 countries tax tobacco to the WHO-recommended level. Industry political influence is a central obstacle to implementation. The Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2023 found protections deteriorated in 43 of 80 countries. It found companies successfully lobbying to end bans on e-cigarettes, heated products or nicotine pouches in Egypt, Kenya and Uruguay. It also found companies targeting delegations to the treaty's Conference of the Parties. Much of the industry is listed, including Altria, Philip Morris International, BAT and Japan Tobacco. Altria alone reported 12.37 million dollars of US federal lobbying in 2025. Owners can therefore curb the marketing, product and lobbying conduct that obstructs the treaty across large parts of the world. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility works this lever directly; its members filed a 2016 shareholder resolution asking Walgreens to review the risks of selling tobacco in its drugstores, pointing to CVS's 2014 exit from tobacco sales. The largest producer, however, is the state-owned China National Tobacco Corporation. It supplies about 43.6 percent of the global cigarette market and lies beyond any shareholder's reach. The treaty's measures must also be legislated and enforced by governments. Owners remove a necessary obstacle while states must act to deliver the outcome.
How this was scoredNecessary
Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Tobacco and nicotine, World Health Organization, 2026-06-26
- Efforts to Protect Policy from Tobacco Industry Interference Have Deteriorated in 43 Countries, According to Civil Society Groups, STOP / Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control, 2023-11-14
- Lobbying Disclosures, Altria Group, 2026
- What is China Tobacco?, OCCRP, 2021-06-22
- Shareholder Resolution Challenges Walgreens on Continued Sales of Tobacco, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, 2016-08-25
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Its members, led by the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia and Trinity Health, file proposals on tobacco sales at retailers and on lobbying disclosure at Altria and engage Philip Morris International on its lobbying of Congress and the FDA.
Corporate Engagement, Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, 2025
Filed proposals at Kroger and Walgreens on the public health and environmental costs of tobacco sales and engages Philip Morris International on lobbying and the marketing of IQOS and Zyn.
Corporate Engagement, Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, 2025
Lead filer of a 2021 proposal asking Altria to report annually on its lobbying payments, grassroots lobbying and memberships in groups that write model legislation.
4 campaigns on record
Address the company's lobbying of Congress and the FDA on new nicotine products and its marketing of IQOS heated tobacco and Zyn nicotine pouches.
Result: not stated in source
Corporate Engagement, Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, 2025
Commission and disclose a report on the external public health costs created by the company's sale of tobacco products.
With Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, Sisters of the Humility of Mary, CommonSpirit Health, Bon Secours Mercy Health
Result: not stated in source
Publish an annual report disclosing lobbying policies, direct, indirect and grassroots lobbying payments and recipients, memberships in organizations that write model legislation, and board oversight of those expenditures.
With Reynders, McVeigh Capital Management, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Paul Province
Result: not stated in source
Report within six months on the financial risk, including long term legal and reputational risk, of continuing to sell tobacco products in the company's stores.
With Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, Sisters of the Humility of Mary, Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, Trinity Health
Result: It never reached a vote. Walgreens asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to leave the proposal out of its proxy, and the staff said it would not object to the company omitting it as a matter of ordinary business under Rule 14a-8(i)(7). The company's report of the January 26, 2017 annual meeting lists no tobacco proposal among the six items voted on.
We found no documented change. Walgreens continued to sell tobacco.
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.