Description
Members of Parliament in Ireland have proposed a bill to prohibit fossil advertising
1.
When: 5 March 2024
What: a national proposal for a law that prohibits advertising, sponsoring, branding and promotion for "fossil fuels, fossil fuelled vehicles or flights involving fossil-fuelled aircraft."
Who: Private member Paul Murphy, People Before Profit-Solidarity
Text of the proposed bill to prohibit advertising of fossil fuels and fossil fueled vehicles (pdf)
Follow further developments: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/bills/bill/2024/14/
Murphy draws the parallel with successful tobacco policy in his speech in which he introduced the bill to parliament.
"Fossil fuels and the vehicles that use them are the primary cause of global heating and a myriad of other environmental and health problems. Extreme weather events like flooding, air pollution,and the deaths and chronic illnesses air pollution causes like COPD, heart disease and respiratory problems like asthma."
"The last time such a clear public health threat was so clearly associated with a particular, non-essential product was with tobacco. We banned tobacco advertising and sponsorship because of the clear link between smoking and illness, disease and death. It’s time to do the same with the advertising of fossil fuels, fossil-fuelled vehicles and flights."
"We need to move away from our current hellscape where advertising for the fossil fuels that are killing our planet is everywhere – on billboards, websites and TV. The car companies and the fossil fuel companies wouldn’t spend millions on advertising if it didn’t work. Just like the tobacco companies before them, they are making billions in profits out of killing us.”
2.
When: 6 March 2024
What: an Act to make provision for the control of fossil fuels and, for that purpose, to prohibit advertising of fossil fuels and fossil fuel undertakings and to provide for certain exemptions. Also to prohibit sponsorship by fossil fuel products and fossil fuel undertakings.
Who: Senator Lynn Boyle (Sinn Fein)
Text of the proposed bill: Fossil Fuel Products (Control of Advertising and Sponsorship) Bill 2024
Lynn Boyle in december 2023:
“If it was a health conference, there is no chance Mary Robinson would need to argue with a tobacco CEO about whether the phase out of cigarettes was needed to cure lung cancer. And there’s a very good reason why tobacco’s influence has been curtailed. Strong action was taken to put limits on the tobacco industry’s ability to influence public debate. We signed up to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It’s time for big oil to get the big tobacco treatment. My bill creates a robust code of conduct to severely limit the power of fossil fuel companies to have their way.