Tobacco Asia

30 tobaccoasia Issue 6, 2025 November / December the Philippines spoke in favor of harm reduction, while the UK did not—a silence observers viewed as a missed opportunity to counterbalance the dominant anti-THR narrative. "We think WHO is going down the wrong path," Cullip says. "So I hope more people will mention it in their statements. It would be interesting to see, because I heard that between 30 and 40 countries objected to some of the things WHO did at the last COP. I'm hoping parties will stand up and say, 'No, that's not how the treaty is supposed to work. We're meant to be the decision-makers here. You should be choosing proper science.'" Cullip will co-organize the TPA's second "Good COP (Conference of the People)" counter-conference in Geneva, concurrent with COP11. Thirty-eight experts from 22 coun- tries—including scientists, consumers, policymakers, and doc- tors—will share their views in panels and sessions. "As we saw at COP10, a lot of governments made posi- tive statements on tobacco harm reduction, but we don't know what will happen at COP11," Cameron says. "My personal view is that more countries will do so. I think many have seen the benefits of allowing harm reduction messaging and products." She adds: "Part of the reason we're in this situation is because no one ever truly stopped it. If industry, consumers, and advocates had united—grounded in science and evidence—they could have pushed back against what WHO is doing. But that never happened. Each company went its own way—PMI doing one thing, BAT an- other, consumer groups doing theirs. There's never been a coordi- nated global campaign. And that's exactly what tobacco control has exploited: a fragmented message that should be unified but isn't. This moment was foreseeable—it's been building for years. Every- one's doing great work, generating evidence, but it's not organized. Meanwhile, WHO has run a consistent, strategic campaign. The moment one COP ends, they're already planning the next. On the outside, we wait until something hits the calendar—then scramble to get our ducks in a row." The provisional agenda offers little hope that COP11 will recognize that reduced-risk products such as vapes could benefit public health. Credit: SmileSmith25, CC4.0.

• Cover