From January 1, 2025, street advertising for fossil fuels will be banned by law in The Hague, the Netherland’s third largest city. The Hague will become the first city in the world to do so.
The Hague will ban street advertising for fossil fuels, according to a notice published on the Dutch city’s website on Friday, September 13, 2024, as a number of cities worldwide crack down on publicity for fossil fuels and high-emissions sectors.
Just as tobacco advertising has been widely banned due to its harmful effects on health, it is argued that advertisements for products or services that contribute significantly to climate change should be banned as they are also harmful to the planet.
The Hague’s Municipal Council voted on Thursday, September 12 to approve the new rules for outdoor advertising, which will apply from January to billboards and freestanding advertising screens. This ban is also expected to support The Hague’s goal of becoming a climate-neutral city by 2030.
“The city council of The Hague adopted two proposals to ban fossil advertising in outdoor spaces,” council spokesman Jordy Kruse told the AFP news agency on Friday.
“The first proposal informs advertising agencies that fossil fuel advertising is not permitted while the second bans all fossil fuel advertising in public spaces,” Kruse said.
Leonie Gerritsen, a Hague council member for the Party for Animals who initiated the proposal, told AFP:
“We believe that adopting binding laws to ban fossil fuel advertising through local legislation is a world first. We hope that this law will also give a signal to other cities to do the same to fight climate change.”
This step comes four months after UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, called on every country in the world to institute a ban on advertising from fossil fuel companies, which he referred to as “the godfathers of climate chaos”.
