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On September 13, The Hague, in The Netherlands, became the world’s first city to outlaw fossil fuel ads. The new law, or ordinance, affects all outdoor advertising sites across the city and prohibits ads for fossil fuels, petrol and diesel cars, aviation and cruise ships.
The Hague’s ad ban is the first to come since Antonio Guterres, UN secretary-general, gave a speech in June criticising the efforts of advertisers who work for fossil fuel companies and calling on all nations to ban fossil fuel advertising.
Lots of world cities have passed motions against fossil fuel advertising. Here in the UK Edinburgh and Sheffield have done just that in recent months. However, motions are not legally binding, lack enforcement powers and are usually slow to come into effect. By contrast, the new law in The Hague comes into effect immediately and is enforceable.
Badvertising’s Andrew Simms said: “After the hottest summer on record and the huge, rapidly growing health and economic costs of air pollution from burning fossil fuels, this legal move is one of the easiest steps governments can take at the city and national level. When you are in a climate-crisis hole, the simplest thing to do is stop digging and that means not advertising the things that got you in trouble to begin with. Any sensible, responsible authority should follow The Hague’s initiative.”
The news from The Hague is hugely welcome and continues the momentum building behind the idea of the high carbon ad ban.
Closer to home, Liverpool City Council passed a motion on September 10 banning junk food ads to help tackle endemic levels of obesity in the city. Unfortunately, a similar motion to ban high carbon advertising in the city failed to pass, with councillors citing “a lack of national standards and few local authority precedents to identify and restrict particular industries, goods and services in this area.”
Liverpool was actually the first local authority in the UK to pass a motion proposing a ban on adverts for high-carbon products back in January 2021. However, that motion was never implemented. Since then Edinburgh and Sheffield have implemented high carbon ad bans, setting a clear precedent.
If you’d like to engage your local council to introduce a high carbon ad ban, you can share our resources for councils with your councillors, complete with precedents, legal advice and model motions.
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