Description
What: City of Utrecht bans fossil ads through the ordinance
Which fossil ads: air and cruise travel, cars with a fossil fuel engine, fossil fueled home energy, fossil fuels
When: adopted: 8 May 2025 | enforced: 1 January 2026
Utrecht, 8 May - The Utrecht city council has just decided to ban fossil advertisements such as air travel through a local ordinance (APV). The decision comes barely two weeks after a court ruling that put all the signs on green for the advertising ban in The Hague.
"Now that The Hague has included a ban in its local ordinance, there is nothing stopping Utrecht from doing the same," said Maarten van Heuven (Party for the Animals Utrecht), who tabled the motion. Utrecht had already adopted a policy in December 2021 to ban fossil advertising from the city when contracts with advertising operators were renewed. That was already a nice step, but it also meant that fossil advertising would in practice disappear from Utrecht only in 2038 - namely when the longest-running contract expires. With an amendment to the local ordinance, all fossil advertising will disappear from Utrecht's public spaces as early as 1 January 2026.
Rémi ter Haar, legal campaigner with the Fossil-Free Advertising campaign group, is pleased that Utrecht is now tightening its policy. "It can no longer be explained that there are still advertisements everywhere that worsen climate disruption. Meanwhile, scientists show time and again the need for a ban on fossil advertising. The court has also confirmed that there are no legal obstacles: to protect public interests, such as health and climate, the municipality may ban fossil advertising. Which municipalities will follow the example of The Hague and Utrecht?"
A recent article in the leading scientific journal Nature already described the precedent that could be set by the local ban on fossil advertising in The Hague. The authors of the article also found that in 13 European countries, support for a ban on fossil advertising is about twice as high as opposition to it.
What happened before?
The Municipality of Utrecht in the Netherlands adopted a proposal in December 2021:
- The municipality should talk with advertising agencies about banning fossil ads.
- A fossil ad ban becomes part of future tenders and contracts for ads in public space.
Utrecht is the first city to ban fossil ads for any new contract or future tender for ads in public space. This includes ads by 'companies in the coal, oil, gas and aviation sector with the products and services fossil fuels, holiday flights/flight tickers, grey electricity and gas contracts, cruise travel and fossil or hybrid fuel engine cars'. The Animal party (PvdD) submitted a proposal that was adopted and supported by the Green party (GroenLinks), Labour party (PvdA), Socialist party (SP), ChristenUnie, DENK and Student&Starter. A first tender including the fossil ad ban is being finalized in 2023.
Adopted change
The council decides:
- Ban fossil advertising from Utrecht's public spaces by:
a. Instructing the board to enter into discussions with the current operators of advertising carriers as well as with applicants for outdoor advertising requiring a permit (advertising on buildings) in Utrecht in order to ban fossil advertisements in public transport stops, freestanding advertising display cases, billboards, lampposts, the advertising mast along the A2 motorway, on roundabouts and on scaffolding sheets, to make agreements to this end and to inform the council of the results within a year;
b. Instruct the council to make a ban on fossil advertising part of the tender documents in future tenders and contracts with future operators of public space advertising.
Read the whole proposal here (in Dutch).
Read the legal briefing that was commissioned and submitted with the proposal here (in Dutch).
