'Fly to the sun for cheap!' You won't see that advertisement in the streets of Nijmegen anymore

Anyone waiting for the bus in Nijmegen will soon no longer see any advertising for flight holidays, cruises or petrol cars. The city council adopted a motion on Wednesday evening to ban fossil advertising from public spaces. To make this possible, the city council is asking the board to adjust the rules for public spaces, the APV. "We want our city to no longer provide a platform for advertising that harms the climate," says councillor Eline Lauret (Party for the Animals), who initiated the motion together with GroenLinks and CDA.

Because advertising for fossil products or services, says Lauret, “encourages purchases that worsen the climate crisis.” This ban is explicitly not about banning those products, she says, but about advertising them. “Flying is legal, just like filling up with petrol or using gas. But the Netherlands and Nijmegen have agreed to drastically reduce _CO2 emissions. So you have to do that.”

As long as fossil products are promoted en masse, there is not enough sustainability. It prevents innovation in the sector

In a second motion, the council asked the municipality to prepare a ban on advertising meat, dairy and eggs from non-organic livestock farming and on fish, because these products also contribute to climate change. "That was the biggest surprise," says Lauret, "that this motion also got a majority."

Nijmegen's decision fits into a broader movement. Previously, Amsterdam (the first in the world) and Haarlem, among others, decided to ban fossil advertising from the streetscape, by stipulating in new contracts that fossil advertising would no longer be shown. The Hague, Utrecht, Delft and now Nijmegen are taking a different approach: by amending the General By-law. In The Hague, this led to a lawsuit, filed by travel industry organization ANVR and travel provider TUI. They argued that the ban was in conflict with freedom of expression. But the court ruled in favor of the municipality in April : governments are allowed to restrict advertising, provided that this is well-founded and proportionate.

Tobacco manufacturers are not allowed to advertise in the Netherlands. This has an effect

That legal green light is a boost for The Hague and for the citizen initiative Reclame Fossielvrij, which has been campaigning for a national ban on fossil advertising since 2019. "If you want to get rid of something because it is dangerous, such as fossil fuels, you have to stop promoting it," says founder Femke Sleegers, who supports local parties that want to put this topic on the agenda. "That also happened with tobacco. Tobacco manufacturers are not allowed to advertise in the Netherlands. That has an effect."

The call for a ban does not only come from politicians or activists. Scientists also warn that fossil advertising has a direct influence on consumer behavior and on how people think about what is normal. For example, a recent study in Nature shows that local bans on fossil advertising do more than just reduce direct consumption: they change how we think about fossil energy. Limiting advertising, a seemingly small measure, can have a big effect. If public opinion changes, the researchers write, companies and politicians will feel more inclined to make sustainable choices.

People are exposed to hundreds, sometimes thousands of advertising messages every day

A group of Dutch scientists argued in 2023 in an advisory report to the House of Representatives that a ban on fossil advertising is essential to initiate and accelerate a sustainable transition. In addition, many more measures are needed, they stated.

People are exposed to hundreds, sometimes thousands of advertising messages every day. From bus shelters to supermarkets, from instastories to highway masts. According to research by TNO , the Scientific Council for Government Policy ( WRR ) and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), among others, these stimuli influence not only individual behaviour, but also our collective standards: what we consider normal, desirable and successful. Advertising that promotes fossil products – such as long-haul flights or large cars – thus contributes to maintaining a consumption pattern that scientists believe is unsustainable.

“The travel industry plays a major role in this,” says Eke Eijgelaar, a researcher in sustainable tourism at Breda University of Applied Sciences. Together with twenty other tourism researchers, he made a public statement in support of an advertising ban in The Hague . “Advertising for air and cruise travel steers behavior in that direction, so it remains the norm. But as long as fossil products are promoted en masse, there is not enough sustainability. The emissions of the travel industry are even increasing. It is holding back innovation in the sector.”

In the Netherlands, public space is largely in the hands of municipalities. They decide for themselves what is shown on the screens, bus shelters and advertising columns that they manage. There is room for local policy – ​​and there appears to be a need for it. “Suddenly, we have the wind at our backs,” says Sleegers. Does she find that remarkable, with a climate-critical government? “It shows how much support there is for climate policy in the Netherlands,” she says. “That is why it should actually be regulated nationally.”

What exactly falls under fossil advertising? This is sometimes still a subject of debate, but most definitions are clear: advertising for fossil fuels (such as natural gas), aviation, cruises, petrol and diesel cars and energy suppliers that are heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Misleading sustainability campaigns by airlines or oil companies, for example, often fall under this category. Municipalities increasingly use a list of example categories, based on the guidelines of Fossil Free Advertising.

In the meantime, scientists are preparing a new step. Among them, a petition for a national ban is circulating, addressed to politicians in The Hague, in which they advocate a legal ban on fossil advertising. The moment of submission is not yet known. "You see that more and more municipalities worldwide are embracing scientific insights and are themselves asking for stricter climate policy," says Sleegers. "Research shows that there is a lot of support in the Netherlands. This is low-hanging fruit. It just needs to be picked."