AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Greenpeace and other environmental groups called on Monday for a Europe-wide ban on adverts and sponsorships by oil and gas companies, comparing them to harmful tobacco promotions.
The groups said they would launch protests and collect a million signatures from EU citizens to put a law banning ads for fossil fuels before the EU Commission.
“The EU has already introduced a directive banning cross-border tobacco advertising and sponsorships,” Greenpeace said in a statement issued in the run-up to the COP26 U.N. climate conference in Glasgow.
“Now it’s time for a similar law against fossil fuel industries for the health of the planet and our future.”
The Commission, the E.U.’s executive body, is obliged to give serious consideration to petitions put forward under the “European Citizens Initiative”, a direct democracy plan enacted by the union in 2007.
More than 20 environmental groups are backing the Ban Fossil Fuel Ads https://banfossilfuelads.org campaign, including Global Witness, Friends of the Earth and Avaaz.
The draft law would ban advertisements for fossil fuels, for vehicles that use them, and block oil companies from sponsorships.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
