Description
Who: Municipality of Amstelveen, the Netherlands
What: Passed a motion to phase out fossil fuel advertising in outdoor spaces.
When: January 2024
The municipal council of Amstelveen (the Netherlands) has passed a motion to phase out fossil fuel advertising in outdoor spaces on January 31st, 2024. It requires the city board to enter into talks with Global, the current operator of the advertisements in bus shelters and freestanding billboards. The city board also has to investigate whether the municipality can explicitly ban fossil advertising by contract in subsequent tenders.
Citizen councillor Herman van Veelen of the ChristenUnie on the reason for drawing up this motion: "Fossil fuel companies really know what they are doing, and they don't spend around €50,000 a year on outdoor advertising in Amstelveen for nothing. They do this, of course, to sell us more fossil energy. That is diametrically opposed to Amstelveen's sustainable ambitions. Our municipality lies under the smoke of Schiphol Airport and is crossed by the A9 motorway. Fossil fuel is also a real local health problem for us, on top of the global climate crisis. Then it makes sense to ban this advertising, just as we have done for ages with with tobacco advertising.
Alderman advised against vote
Alderman Frank Berkhout (D66) advised voting against the motion. According to him, banning fossil advertising is not legally tenable. He referred to a letter from climate minister Rob Jetten. In that letter, the minister was responding to a report by behavioural scientists calling a ban on fossil advertising essential. Jetten sees problems with the definition of 'fossil', among other things. But it is precisely at the local level that a municipality can interpret that definition itself. ChristenUnie's motion has a clear delineation: 'advertising by the fossil industry (companies working primarily in the coal and oil sectors), advertising for polluting travel (flying, cruises) and advertising for polluting transport (cars with a fossil fuel engine)'.
The councillor also said that talking to operators would be of no use because excluding fossil advertising would mean such a substantial change to the contract that it would have to be opened up immediately. Lawyers from consultancy firm Eiffel, however, ruled differently in an advice to Utrecht municipality: "Agreements on excluding a certain type of advertising are not so far-reaching as to constitute a different contract. Agreements can therefore be made within the current concession on banning fossil advertising."
D66: "Influence of advertising on behaviour greater than thought"
D66 councillor Maarten de Haan does support banning fossil advertisements in his municipality: "It is important to ban fossil advertising because, on the one hand, the influence of advertising on behaviour is greater than many people realise and, on the other hand, there are companies that give a wrong impression about their organisation's fossil footprint."
The entire D66 group voted in favour of the motion, as did PvdA, SP, local party Burgerbelangen Amstelveen and co-sponsor GroenLinks.
"Not a right-left issue"
Reclame Fossielrvij is happy with the Amstelveen motion: "This shows that even in a municipality where a right-wing party is the largest, taking steps is possible. The science is clear: we need to get rid of fossil advertisements for the transition to a sustainable society. These advertisements undermine municipal climate policies and harm residents' health. So it should not be a right-left issue. Until there is a national ban, it is up to municipal politicians of all parties to protect their residents by banning fossil advertisements."
