Sydney becomes the second major city in the world to vote for ad bans.
Sydney becomes the second major city in the world, after Amsterdam, to tackle advertising for unhealthy, high-emissions coal, petroleum and ‘natural’ gas.
City of Sydney councillors voted on Monday 22 August to prevent coal, oil and gas from being promoted on its properties and events.
The motion, put forward by Deputy Mayor, Jess Scully stated; ‘the City of Sydney should also investigate ways to restrict fossil fuel advertising and Council should not accept sponsorships from companies whose main business is the extraction or sale of coal, oil and gas.*’
The City accepts sponsorships for events such as New Year’s Eve and has one of the largest outdoor advertising networks in the world, seen by more than 2 million people a week.
City of Sydney Deputy Lord Mayor Jess Scully said the City of Sydney declared a climate emergency in 2019 and said she was proud to support a campaign that would see a ban on fossil fuel advertising. She told the meeting;
“I think this is the moment we can draw a line in the sand and say ‘not here’ and ‘no more’ because we know that the people of the City of Sydney do want climate action, they do want us to move away from a fossil-fuel dependent economy and they do know that to do that we need to get rid of the whitewashing, get rid of the self-promotion that the sector is doing.”
Sydney’s move follows an open letter from more than 200 health professionals and organisations, asking for Fossil Ad Bans because of the devastating health and climate effects of burning coal, oil and gas.
Initiated by Comms Declare, a coalition for positive climate action from the communication, creative and advertising sector, the Fossil Ad Ban campaign aims to achieve tobacco-style bans on ads and sponsorships for fossil fuels at local, state and federal levels. In April, Yarra became the first council in Australia to move to restrict the promotion of fossil fuels on council-run property, followed by Moreland in July.
Comms Declare Founder, Belinda Noble said “Congratulations to the people of Sydney, your streets and events may soon be free of the insidious promotion of toxic fossil fuels.
“While we transition to cleaner energy it’s imperative that legacy industries are not allowed to greenwash their businesses or delay emissions reduction efforts.
“I look forward to working with the City of Sydney to help implement these restrictions and hope other Australian cities and councils will similarly prioritise the health and wellbeing of their communities by preventing the promotion of pollution.”
Studies have found that air pollution from burning fossil fuels claims between 2,616 and 5,700 lives in Australia every year – more than road accidents. Globally air pollution from burning fossil fuels claims more lives than smoking.
Sydney’s air pollution is regularly above recommended levels and city residents face numerous threats from global warming including more intense heat waves, droughts, less drinkable water and sea level rise.
*The final adopted Motion said “the City of Sydney commits to work to support the community campaign for a ban on advertising by companies involved in the production or supply of fossil fuels, including at Council sponsored events and on council-managed property.”
Quotes from the council meeting
Lord Mayor, Clover Moore
“This is a really important action that we’re taking here.”
Deputy Mayor Jess Scully
“All of us remember those bushfires that we lived through, the toxicity in the air that we breathed in 2019/2020, and a real feeling that the reckoning was coming, that Australia’s history of being the third largest fossil fuel exporter to the world was now beginning to bear a really tragic fruit.”
“I think this is the moment we can draw a line in the sand and say ‘not here’ and ‘no more’ because we know that the people of the City of Sydney do want climate action, they do want us to move away from a fossil-fuel dependent economy and they do know that to do that we need to get rid of the whitewashing, get rid of the self-promotion that the sector is doing.”
“This motion calls on the City to do our best to work with that campaign, to see if we can avoid, prevent, presenting any fossil fuel advertising in the City of Sydney and I think that’s very much consistent with our declaration of a Climate Emergency in 2019 and the expectations of our community.”
“So it’s time we all wake up. It’s time we all say ‘enough is enough’ and I’m very happy to be on the side of the ‘woke’, I’m very happy to be on the side of the City of Sydney because I know our population is behind us and I know it from all of the comments and all of the emails that I’ve received.”
Cr Sylvie Ellsmore
“The community’s moving much further forward, as they often do, to our state and federal politicians and I’m so glad that we, at the local government level, can move forward with them.”
Cr HY William Chan
“Again, I see leadership from our City. Not only will we be participating in what’s been asked by the campaign…. we’re also asking the federal minister for communications to also pass national legislation that restricts fossil fuel advertising, similar to what they did with tobacco.”
Cr Linda Scott
“… the next phase of what is going to mark a very important war in the public relations battle to ensure that people understand the need to transition and are not inundated by messages that are either false or misleading or are continuing to promote products that damage our environment.”
