Alcohol consumption among young people remains a public health concern across the globe: in low- and middle-income countries consumption has increased, especially among young women, and young people’s consumption in high-income countries remains high. This brief highlights how alcogenic environments influence young people’s normalization of alcohol and their patterns of consumption. It explores the evidence of the effectiveness and challenges of current interventions to address the acceptability, availability and affordability of alcohol. These lessons provide a way forward towards designing and implementing dynamic and responsive measures to promote healthy settings that protect young people from the harm caused by alcohol consumption.