Cheap Sugar, Costly Lives: WHO Pushes Governments Toward a New Era of Health Taxes

The World Health Organization has issued a renewed global call for governments to sharply raise taxes on sugary drinks and alcoholic beverages, warning that weak fiscal policies are quietly fueling a worldwide surge in obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and injury, particularly among children and adolescents. The organization argues that artificially low prices for these products are masking enormous long-term health and economic costs that societies are already beginning to pay.

Two newly released WHO reports reveal that while sugar-sweetened beverages and alcoholic drinks generate billions of dollars in global profits, governments currently capture only a small fraction of this value through health-motivated taxation. The remaining burden, according to the agency, is transferred to public health systems struggling under rising non-communicable diseases and preventable injuries. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described health taxes as one of the most powerful tools available to prevent disease and finance essential health services, emphasizing that higher levies on tobacco, alcohol and sugary drinks can reduce harmful consumption while strengthening national health budgets.

The reports show that at least 116 countries tax sugar-sweetened beverages, largely targeting carbonated soft drinks. However, many high-sugar products such as 100 percent fruit juices, sweetened milk drinks and ready-to-drink coffees and teas remain untaxed in most markets. Despite the fact that 97 percent of countries apply taxes to energy drinks, the global coverage has not expanded since the previous 2023 assessment. On the alcohol side, at least 167 countries impose some form of tax and a dozen maintain full prohibitions, yet inflation and income growth have eroded the real value of these taxes, leaving alcohol increasingly affordable since 2022. More than twenty countries, mostly in Europe, still do not tax wine at all, despite its well-documented health risks.

Across regions, WHO found that excise taxes on beer and spirits account for only modest shares of retail prices, while sugary-drink taxes are often narrow, weakly targeted and applied to limited product categories. The organization warns that without inflation-adjusted taxation, harmful products will continue to become cheaper in real terms, amplifying long-term public health damage.

Under its new “3 by 35” initiative, WHO is urging countries to redesign and raise taxes on tobacco, alcohol and sugary beverages to increase their real prices by 2035. The agency’s message is blunt: what appears cheap at the checkout counter today may become extraordinarily expensive for society tomorrow.