City of Sydney to investigate a ban on fossil fuel advertising
In a council meeting on the evening of Monday 22 August, City of Sydney councilors voted to investigate a ban on fossil fuel advertising, looking at ways to prevent coal, oil, and gas from being promoted on its properties and events.
The motion, put forward by deputy mayor Jess Scully, said ‘the City of Sydney should also investigate ways to restrict fossil fuel advertising and Council should not accept sponsorships from companies whose main business is the extraction or sale of coal, oil, and gas.’
A ban on fossil fuel advertising in the city would prevent fossil fuel producers from engaging City events such as New Year’s Eve as sponsorship opportunities, as well as making the council’s outdoor advertising network, one of the largest in the world, seen by 2 million people each week, off limits.
The vote follows communication, creative, and advertising industry climate advocacy group Comms Declare’s fossil fuel ban campaign, which saw the circulation of an open letter from more than 200 health professionals. The letter asked for a fossil fuels ad bad on the basis of the devastating health and climate effects of burning coal, oil, and gas, drawing parallels with advertising bans placed on tobacco.
City of Sydney deputy lord mayor Jess Scully said the City of Sydney declared a climate emergency in 2019 and said she was proud to support a campaign that would see a ban on fossil fuel advertising.
She told the meeting: “I think this is the moment we can draw a line in the sand and say ‘not here’ and ‘no more’ because we know that the people of the City of Sydney do want climate action, they do want us to move away from a fossil-fuel dependent economy and they do know that to do that we need to get rid of the whitewashing, get rid of the self-promotion that the sector is doing.”
City of Sydney follows in the footsteps of Yarra council, which in April became the first council in Australia to move to restrict the promotion of fossil fuels on council-run property, followed by Moreland in July.
Councilor HY William Chan added: “Again, I see leadership from our City. Not only will we be participating in what’s been asked by the campaign…. we’re also asking the federal minister for communications to also pass national legislation that restricts fossil fuel advertising, similar to what they did with tobacco.
Comms Declare founder, Belinda Noble said: “Congratulations to the people of Sydney, your streets and events may soon be free of the insidious promotion of toxic fossil fuels.
“While we transition to cleaner energy it’s imperative that legacy industries are not allowed to greenwash their businesses or delay emissions reduction efforts.
“I look forward to working with the City of Sydney to help implement these restrictions and hope other Australian cities and councils will similarly prioritise the health and wellbeing of their communities by preventing the promotion of pollution.”
Have your say