The environmental association has filed a complaint citing high June temperatures and escalating public health concerns due to heatwaves, questioning the rationale behind advertising products “significantly responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.”
Fossil fuels contribute to global warming, extreme weather events, and air pollution, the association notes.
Citing the prohibition of tobacco advertising due to its serious health risks, Zero asserts that “it makes increasingly less sense to allow fossil fuel companies to leverage advertising to normalize, promote, and even glamorize products that compromise environmental health, exacerbate respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and accelerate climate degradation.”
For the association, advocating for this prohibition is not only a matter of climate coherence but also a public health measure and a matter of intergenerational justice.
The Zero association references national legislation, particularly the Advertising Code, regarding the prohibition of advertisements that encourage harmful consumer behavior, stating that the climate crisis challenges the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced living environment as enshrined in the Constitution.
Therefore, Zero has filed a complaint with the Regulatory Authority for the Media (ERC) concerning the advertising of fossil fuels or products that encourage their intensive use, which the ERC forwarded to the Directorate-General for Consumer.
The association also announces it is recommending legislative initiatives aimed at clarifying legislation and banning such practices.
“Similar to what has been done with tobacco, Zero proposes that Portugal recognize that fossil fuels are detrimental to public health and the planet,” the statement emphasizes.
Zero believes there is a growing understanding of the “unsustainability of greenwashing campaigns and practices in the fossil fuel sector,” citing an analysis by the environmental organization “Greenpeace,” which indicates that advertising by airlines and car manufacturers in Europe is contributing to the worsening of the global climate emergency.
The city of The Hague (Netherlands) and France have already imposed restrictions on fossil fuel advertising, and Spain is preparing legislation on the matter, Zero notes, emphasizing the need for Europe to take ambitious legal measures “to guide consumption towards more responsible and sustainable alternatives, avoiding the use of fossil fuels.”
Globally, more than 40 cities have adopted measures against the advertising of fossil-based products, Zero claims.
Even the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, called on governments in 2024 to ban fossil product advertising.
