Opinion: Industry and governments in B.C. and beyond must heed the UN secretary-general’s call for a ban. Like tobacco ads before them, they are a public health issue
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Last week, the momentum to ban fossil fuel advertising intensified, when UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a global ban, following the planet’s 12 hottest consecutive months on record. Whether to restrict advertising from the oil and gas sector is an issue that jurisdictions in B.C., and around the world, have been wrestling with for years.
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In 2019, the City of Vancouver considered whether fossil fuel companies should be prohibited from advertising at City events, something the City of Ottawa is currently reviewing; in 2022, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment — backed by organizations representing half a million health professionals — urged the federal government to ban ads promoting health-harming fossil fuels, the same year that France implemented the first countrywide ban, and a year after Amsterdam did. In 2023, B.C.’s Lower Mainland Local Government Association rejected a motion to ban fossil fuel companies from sponsoring their conferences, and this year Bill C-372 — the Fossil Fuel Advertising Act — was tabled in the House of Commons and the B.C. Greens have put forward similar legislation.
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Fossil fuel ads, like tobacco ads before them, are a public health issue. Health systems in B.C. and Canada are increasingly overrun by the impacts of wildfires, heat, and toxic emissions on patients, presenting as cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular and respiratory disorders — all of which are exacerbated by climate change, fuelled by burning fossil fuels.
Air pollution from burning fossil fuels, such as gas and coal, is responsible for up to one in five deaths, or nearly 20 per cent of mortalities, worldwide. The United Nations estimates that air pollution from fossil fuels — in a single year, 2018 — caused $2.9 trillion in health and economic costs, an average of $8 billion a day.
A new study, released this month in Science Advances, found that more than 50,000 Californians were killed prematurely by wildfire smoke in the decade from 2008-2018, with air pollution exposure leading to $456 billion in health expenses over the same period.
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Advertising is designed to persuade, influence, inform and position topics as relevant and top of mind for audiences, including policymakers. Companies spend millions on advertising because it works.
Advertising and public relations are amongst the most powerful tools the industry uses to undermine a transition away from its products. Today, they are positioning themselves as the solution to the problem they are fuelling, but these claims are increasingly under the radar.
This week, new anti-greenwashing provisions — that require companies in all industries to provide evidence of any green claims – inched closer to being formally enshrined into the Competition Act as part of Ottawa’s Bill C-59.
Pathways Alliance, a consortium of Canada’s major tar sands producers, is already being investigated by the Competition Bureau for false and misleading environmental claims in their “Let’s clear the air” ads, as are the Canadian Gas Association and Enbridge Gas for claims that fossil fuel natural gas is “clean energy” and “low carbon.”
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Last month, a unanimous interim decision by Ads Standards Canada — a national self-regulatory body tasked with administering the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards to ensure ads are truthful and accurate — found that advertisements that claimed that “B.C. LNG will reduce global emissions” were inaccurate, misleading and distorted scientific evidence. Furthermore, the bright green background and imagery used in the ad campaign, which has been ubiquitous in B.C. and Ontario urban centres, “emphasize[d] an environmental benefit that liquefied natural gas does not truly have,” the ruling found.
This matters because advertising that misinforms can serve to delay climate action that supports better public health, benefiting people, the planet and reducing the burden on the healthcare system. According to the IPCC, misinformation on climate change from vested interests is the major barrier to effective climate action in Canada.
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As people in Canada struggle to pay the bills and do their part to reduce their carbon footprint, the oil and gas industry has no shortage of resources. Sky-high energy prices that have eroded affordability for most of us have led to record profits for the sector (more than a 1,000 per cent increase since 2019).
Industry and governments in B.C. — and beyond — must heed Guterres’s call. Edinburgh just did, following British cities Cambridge, Liverpool, Norwich and Sheffield, and so have municipalities across the Netherlands and Australia. Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands are considering countrywide bans. According to Edinburgh council: It’s just basic common sense.
By implementing a fossil fuel ad ban, Canada can boldly demonstrate its commitment to public health, the environment and the rights of future generations. As Guterres said, it’s time to stop Mad Men fuelling madness.
Leah Temper, PhD, is health and economic policy program director at the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment\.
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