Amsterdam, The Netherlands, became the first major capital city to ban public advertisements of meat, oil, and gas products in the name of fighting climate change.
In January, the city council voted 27-17 in support of a legally-binding prohibition on ads in public spaces featuring burgers, steak, airlines, gas-powered cars, and other so-called “high-carbon” products. This went into effect on May 1st, 2026, but exempts private stores, newspapers, and digital media.
Supporters of the measure argue that this ban will help the city reach its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. Furthermore, the Dutch capital city wants its residents to increase their intake of plant-based products to 60% by 2030.
The law to ban “advertising that contributes to the climate crisis” was first organized by the Dutch GreenLeft and the Party for the Animals parties in April 2024. The party for the Animals is a political party “that does not put the short-term interests of man in the pivotal position” and believes in so-called animal liberation. The party also opposes hunting, coal plants, nuclear energy, and farming, but supports fighting climate change and “regulation when necessary, freedom of choice where possible.”
“If you spend lots of tax money and have lots of policies trying to manage climate change in Amsterdam, why would you rent out your public walls to exactly the opposite?” said Anneke Veenhoff, a GreenLeft party city councillor.
Amsterdam, however, isn’t the first city to ban public advertisements in this manner. Nearby Haarlem became the first-ever city to ban meat ads in September 2022 under the guise of reducing meat consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In August 2022, France became the first nation to forbid ads promoting the petroleum and diesel industries under its 2021 Climate and Resilience Law. Spain is expected to join France in banning similar ads.
According to a group called World Without Fossil Ads, a major backer of this campaign, more than 50 cities around the world are moving to ban public ads featuring coal, oil, gas products, and derivatives.
The first major call to ban fossil fuel advertisements came in a June 2024 speech delivered by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. He accused fossil fuel companies of being “godfathers of climate chaos,” deliberately harming human health.
“Many governments restrict or prohibit advertising for products that harm human health, like tobacco,” Guterres said. “I urge every country to ban advertising from fossil-fuel companies. And I urge news media and tech companies to stop taking fossil-fuel advertising.”
BBC News reports, however, that Amsterdam’s new aggressive climate policy will have a limited impact on meat and fossil fuel consumption. Meat ads accounted for just 0.1% of ad spend in the Dutch capital city, while fossil fuel-related products comprised 4%.
With net-zero climate policies facing more opposition worldwide, activists are resorting to last-ditch efforts like this to change behaviors. This is a solution in search of a problem that infringes on consumer choice without contributing any positive benefit to the environment.