Paul Murphy urges ban on fossil fuel advertising amid climate harms
Paul Murphy called for a ban on fossil fuel advertising, arguing that car companies and other fossil fuel advertisers contribute to air pollution and the climate emergency. He said he has submitted a bill to the Bill's Office to prohibit such advertising and invited the Taoiseach to support it when it is debated.
Call to ban fossil fuel advertising
Paul Murphy highlighted Renault's role as a commercial sponsor of RTE and said that car companies and other fossil fuel advertisers make up a large share of media advertising. He asked whether the time has come to ban fossil fuel advertising as was done for tobacco.
Health and climate impacts
He warned that fossil fuel advertising encourages use of products that harm health and cited that close to 9 million people die each year from air pollution linked to fossil fuels, a figure he said exceeds annual tobacco deaths. He also pointed to recent record high temperatures and said these are symptoms of ecological collapse driven by fossil fuel companies.
Legislation lodged
Paul Murphy said he was submitting a bill to the Bill's Office to ban fossil fuel advertising and invited the Taoiseach to consider and support the bill when it is brought forward for debate.
Government response
The Taoiseach responded that there are currently no plans to ban fossil fuel advertising and that any private member's legislation would be considered by Cabinet, as usual. The Taoiseach argued that many people currently lack viable alternatives to fossil fuels and that advertising can provide information on available options and prices.
Electric vehicles and renewables noted
The Taoiseach pointed out that car manufacturers also produce electric vehicles and that take-up of new EVs is increasing. He acknowledged electricity is still partly produced from fossil fuels but said this is changing and reiterated a target of reaching about 80% renewables by 2030.
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One of the things that emerged from yesterday's committee hearings was the extremely central and important role of Renault as a key commercial sponsor and partner for RTE. If you add in all the other car companies which advertise with RTE and other fossil fuel companies, be it flights and fossil fuels directly, it must make up quite a large proportion of the amount of advertising that happens in RTE and across our media generally. Does this not pose a question now about the need to take action like we have taken in terms of tobacco and ban fossil fuel advertising? These companies are not advertising for the sake of our health and the consequence of their advertising, because it works, it gets people to use more of these products, is bad for our health. Close to 9 million people die a year from air pollution linked to fossil fuels, that is more than die from tobacco related disease on a yearly basis. And most significantly in terms of the future of our planet, you look at over the last couple of weeks a number of records broken in terms of the hottest day on record. We are facing and we can see all around us the symptoms of ecological collapse, and this has been driven by these fossil fuel companies. So isn't it time to ban fossil fuel advertising? We are submitting a bill today to the Bill's office to do precisely that, and I would like to invite the Taoiseach to perhaps think about it, but hopefully support our bill when it comes up for debate. Thank you, Deputy Director. Just in relation to Renault, we don't at the moment anyway have any plans to ban fossil fuel advertising. We will certainly look at any private member's legislation that comes before a Cabinet, which we always do. At the moment there are a lot of people who don't have much of a choice but to use fossil fuels because they have an oil burner or because they have gas heating or they can't yet afford electric vehicles, so a lot of people do not have much choice at the moment other than to use fossil fuels, and it could be argued that advertising at least gives them information about what options are available and what price offers might be available. It does not necessarily encourage them to use more fossil fuels, but that is often the argument made for and against advertising bans, as the Deputy will well know. One thing I would say in relation to car manufacturers, they do produce electric vehicles as well, and we are seeing a big take-off in the number of new EVs being bought, and that is very encouraging. I appreciate that electric vehicles are powered by electricity, which is half produced by fossil fuels, but that is again changing over time, and I think we will reach that target of 80% renewables or better by 2030.
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