UN chief calls for fossil fuel ads to be banned like cigarette ads
'Stop acting as enablers to planetary destruction,' secretary general tells PR firms
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres took aim at fossil fuel advertising in a major speech on Wednesday that gave ammunition to critics who have been calling for tighter restrictions in Canada and countries around the world.
"Many governments restrict or prohibit advertising for products that harm human health — like tobacco. Some are now doing the same with fossil fuels," Guterres said in New York City, after new data showed the planet had hit record heat levels over the past 12 months.
"I urge every country to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies."
Guterres also called on public relations firms to "stop acting as enablers to planetary destruction."
"Many in the fossil fuel industry have shamelessly greenwashed, even as they have sought to delay climate action — with lobbying, legal threats and massive ad campaigns."
A boost for activists
Guterres has no legal standing to put in place a ban on fossil fuel advertising, but environmentalists and experts who have been calling for tighter restrictions said his comments would give momentum to the cause.
Robert Brulle, a visiting professor of environment and sociology at Brown University in the U.S., said his remarks add "further to the political will to restrict advertising."
"I don't think that this issue is going to go away at all, and I believe that these calls will result in some jurisdictions actually banning fossil fuel advertising," said Brulle, whose research has shown how oil companies target their promotional efforts to influence policymakers and shape the public climate-change debate.
"That could cause major problems for the fossil fuel industry as it would slowly lose its licence to operate and become a pariah industry much like the tobacco industry."
Wednesday's speech shows that "even the UN, which previously sought collaboration with the fossil fuel industry on climate solutions, no longer trusts the industry to act responsibly," said Emilia Belliveau, with the Canadian advocacy group Environmental Defence.
"We support a ban on fossil fuel advertising, and other steps to rein in greenwashing," Belliveau said in a statement.
Oil and gas group defends attempt to 'amplify industry'
France became the first country to ban fossil fuel advertisements in 2022. There have been several proposals in countries and at the local level in the years since.
In response to Guterres's speech, the president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said advertisements are "one way we can reach Canadians to ensure they are informed of the progress their oil and natural gas industry is making on these critical matters."
"We are proud to amplify industry efforts to meet the need for safe, reliable, affordable and responsibly produced energy, for Canada and the world," CAPP president Lisa Baiton said in a statement.
The burning of fossil fuels to create electricity, heat homes and produce materials like steel and concrete is the main contributor to global warming.
A report published Tuesday by more than 50 scientists, and led by the University of Leeds, found that greenhouse gas emissions need to be decreasing by nine per cent per year until 2030 to limit warming to 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels. To do so, Guterres said world leaders and corporations must take "urgent action" to slash greenhouse gas emissions, invest more in renewable energy and "clamp down" on the fossil fuel industry.
Private member's bill faces pushback
In Canada, NDP natural resources critic Charlie Angus tabled a private member's bill earlier this year that would ban what the party describes as misleading fossil fuel advertising, similar to the way cigarette ads were restricted in the 1990s.
Canada's Competition Bureau has put forward ideas for how to crack down on greenwashing — a blanket term for misleading or unsupported statements about a product or company's environmental record.
Pathways Alliance, which represents major oilsands producers, is the subject of an investigation by the competition bureau for an ad campaign that promoted the producers' plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. A new report by the U.K.-based climate think-tank InfluenceMap lays out what it describes as Pathways' "playbook from the oil and gas sector to block climate action."
Pathways did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
The private member's bill has completed first reading in the House of Commons, but has faced major pushback. The Conservatives want to kill the bill, saying the world needs "more Canadian energy, not less." The provincial NDP in Alberta and Saskatchewan have also distanced themselves from the idea.
"It is not helpful to pick fights that just polarize people and get in the way of the real solutions we need," NDP MLAs Nagwan Al-Guneid of Alberta and Aleana Young of Saskatchewan said in a joint statement earlier this year.
"Energy companies are important job creators in Alberta and Saskatchewan and shouldn't be singled out by advertising restrictions."
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