THE HAGUE: The Dutch city of The Hague has become the first in the world to pass local laws banning advertisements for fossil fuels, petrol cars and long-distance air travel.

The administrative city of over 500,000 residents late on Thursday adopted ground-breaking local legislation to outlaw ads, including for cheap last-minute holidays and cut-price electricity contracts.

The law comes into effect on Jan 1.

“The City Council of The Hague adopted two proposals to ban fossil advertising in outdoor spaces,” council spokesman Jordy Kruse said.

The first proposal will inform advertising agencies that fossil fuel advertising is not permitted, while the second completely banned all fossil fuel advertising in public spaces.

“We believe that adopting binding laws to ban fossil fuel advertising through local legislation is a world-first,” Leonie Gerritsen, a Hague council member for the Party for Animals (PvdD), said.

“We hope that this law will also give a signal to other cities to do the same to fight climate change,” Gerritsen, one of the main drivers of the legislation, said.

Other cities in the world have moved against fossil fuel adverts, but The Hague is the first to enact binding legislation.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2024