Fossil fuel ads mislead consumers, hinder emissions reduction goals, UN Secretary-General calls for ban

According to news from this website on June 23, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on governments and media around the world to stop accepting financial support from the fossil fuel industry earlier this month. He harshly accused energy companies of "distorting facts, deceiving the public, and spreading doubts about the climate crisis" and said: "Let those 'Mad Men' stop fueling the madness!"

Noted by this site , Guterres’s remarks come at a critical moment for the automotive industry. Since the price of many new electric vehicles is still much higher than that of gasoline-powered vehicles, consumers are still taking a wait-and-see attitude towards electric vehicles.

Guterres calls for similar restrictions on fossil fuel advertising as he does on tobacco and alcohol advertising. However, restrictions on tobacco advertising are primarily designed to avoid influencing children's minds, while restrictions on fossil fuel advertising are designed to influence consumer behavior.

Some countries, cities and companies have begun to ban oil and gas companies from advertising. France has restricted the promotion of coal, natural gas and hydrogen produced from fossil fuels, while Amsterdam, Sydney and Edinburgh have also restricted advertising by high-emitting companies. On the media front, The Guardian, Vox and France’s Le Monde have all banned oil and gas advertising.

In the United States, however, enforcing such restrictions on a national level may be more difficult. Rebecca Tushnet, a First Amendment professor at Harvard Law School, said: "Even if Congress attempts to enact it, a fossil fuel advertising ban will almost certainly be subject to legal challenges for violating existing U.S. law."

Tushnet told Scientific American Adding that a blanket federal ban on fossil fuel advertising will be difficult to sustain unless there is a significant shift in the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, in which the First Amendment protects commercial speech.

A more realistic approach would be for the government to take measures against fossil fuel companies that publish false information. However, with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calling for global greenhouse gas emissions to drop to net zero by 2050, greater efforts to reduce the presence of fossil fuel advertising are needed if the target is to be met.

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