The Hague Becomes First City in the World to Outlaw Fossil Fuel Advertising, Months After UN-Chief Call to Stop Fueling Disinformation

In June, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said advertising and PR agencies are enabling planetary destruction and urged them to stop promoting fossil fuel companies and drop existing clients.

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The Dutch city of The Hague passed a groundbreaking law on Thursday to ban advertisements promoting fossil fuel products and services, the first city in the world to do so.

Effective from January 1, 2025, the new ban applies to fossil fuel products and high-carbon services such as cruise ships and air travel. The legislation is a crucial step in the city’s transition to net zero, which it aims to reach by 2030.

“The Hague wants to be climate neutral by 2030. Then it is not appropriate to allow advertising for products from the fossil industry,” said Leonie Gerritsen, a member of the city council for the Party for the Animals and one of the backers of the new local law.

For many, the ban will have repercussions beyond the local level and could act as a potential catalyst for similar actions worldwide.

British author, political economist and campaigner Andrew Simms said “any sensible, responsible authority” should follow The Hague’s example.

“The city of The Hague has declared it is no longer willing to promote its own self destruction by banning in law adverts for the most polluting products and lifestyles. 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,” Simms said. “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,” he added.

The move comes months after UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on countries to ban fossil fuel advertising in the same way they restricted tobacco.

“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. They have been aided and abetted by advertising and PR companies – Mad Men fuelling the madness,” Guterres said in a speech in June to mark World Environment Day.

In his speech, Guterres said advertising and PR agencies as well as news media and tech companies are enabling planetary destruction and urged them to stop promoting fossil fuels and drop existing clients. “Fossil fuels are not only poisoning our planet – they’re toxic for your brand,” he said.

Fossil fuel giants have repeatedly used international events, social media platforms, and influencers to promote their planet-warming activities.

A 2023 analysis by the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) found that major fossil fuel corporations pumped millions of dollars into digital advertising in the lead-up to COP28, the year’s most important climate summit. The UN conference is notorious for allowing fossil fuel lobbyists to join the talks. According to an analysis by the Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition, at least 2,456 representatives from the world’s largest polluters were granted access to the talks in Dubai last year. At COP27 in Glasgow, the number was 636.

In May of last year, CAAD also accused video streaming platform YouTube of profiting from ads on climate disinformation videos. The global coalition of over 50 leading climate and anti-disinformation organizations identified 200 examples of YouTube videos containing climate misinformation and disinformation, which collectively served ads to over 73 million viewers.

FIFA’s four-year global partnership deal with Saudi Aramco, one of the largest oil companies in the world, to sponsor the 2026 men’s World Cup as well as the Women’s World Cup in 2027, is just another example.  

Thijs Bouman, Associate Professor at the University of Groningen and author of the paper “A ban on fossil ads is essential, but other measures are also needed”, said that fossil fuel advertising “normalizes and promotes unsustainable behavior and discourages sustainable behavior, actively undermining current climate policy.”

“Major government investments are needed to counteract the negative effect of fossil advertising. If fossil advertising is banned, these resources can be better deployed, for example to strengthen sustainable options and facilities such as public transport,” Bouman said.