7 Ways How Alcohol Impedes the SDGs

The 2030 Agenda contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 targets. It’s a comprehensive roadmap for humanity to tackle the world’s biggest problems – coherently and comprehensively. The 17 SDGs cover all three aspects of sustainable human development: the social, environmental, and economic dimension.

However, countries are not on track to reach the SDGs by 2030. And the COVID-19 public health crisis has put the promise “not to leave anyone behind” further out of reach.

As this report about alcohol as obstacle to development shows, alcohol fueled inequalities and other harm are one major reason.

The harm caused by the products and practices of alcohol companies is a major barrier to sustainable development due to its broad and detrimental impacts across multiple sectors of society. It not only harms individuals but also undermines societal progress, particularly in vulnerable populations.

1. Adverse effects on human potential: Alcohol harm impairs human potential throughout the lifecourse, affecting cognitive development, productivity, and overall well-being. From prenatal exposure to its detrimental effects on adolescents and older adults, alcohol diminishes individuals’ and communities’ ability to contribute meaningfully to society.
2. Economic burden: The economic costs of alcohol are enormous, with alcohol harm leading to healthcare expenses, lost productivity, and social services costs. These economic impacts divert resources away from more productive areas of investment, hindering economic growth and poverty alleviation efforts.
3. Contribution to the climate crisis: Alcohol production, especially in large-scale commercial operations, contributes to environmental degradation and the climate crisis. The alcohol industry’s reliance on increasingly scarce and jeoppardized resources like water, grains, foods, and energy, combined with pollution from production and packaging, increases the environmental footprint of alcohol.
4. Social harm and inequality: Alcohol exacerbates social inequalities by disproportionately affecting marginalized and vulnerable populations, such as children and youth and low-income communities. Alcohol  harms, including violence, crime, and exploitation, are often concentrated in these groups, further perpetuating cycles of poverty and exclusion.
5. Gender inequality: Alcohol plays a significant role in perpetuating gender inequality, particularly through its connection to violence against women and through the alcohol industry’s fomenting and perpetuation of harmful norms of male power and dominanance over women. For instance, over decades alcohol marketing has used imagery, messages, and framing that dehumanizes, sexualizes, and objectifies women, reinforcing harmful gender norms. Alcohol-related violence, including intimate partner violence, is a significant barrier to women’s empowerment and gender equality.
6. Alcohol industry as a vector of harm: The alcohol industry fuels poverty, disease, and social and environmental harm. It profits from behaviors that harm people and societies, promoting products that fuel cancer, heart disease, addiction and social problems. Its marketing strategies often target vulnerable groups, perpetuating cycles of harm.
7. Conflict of interest and unethical practices: The alcohol industry has a fundamental conflict of interest when it comes to public health and sustainable development. While governments aim to protect their people from alcohol harm, the alcohol industry seeks to maximize profits. This conflict often results in unethical business practices, including harmful marketing strategies, sabotaging existing rules and insitutions, deceiving the public about the real extent of the harm caused by alcohol, and aggressive lobbying against public health policies.

For these reasons, addressing alcohol harm is essential to achieving the SDGs. 

Without effective policies to lower population-level alcohol consumption and related harms, alcohol will continue to impede progress in areas such as health, poverty eradication, gender equality, environmental sustainability, and economic productivity and prosperity.