World Without Fossil Ads: Experts from Fossil Free Advertising Join Haiku Dialogues
More than 60 cities and regions around the world have already taken action to restrict fossil fuel advertising. Amsterdam began introducing restrictions through advertising contracts in 2020, and in 2026 embedded them in local regulation, extending the restrictions to meat advertising. The Hague, Utrecht, Stockholm, Edinburgh and Florence are among the cities applying different approaches, from local regulation and advertising policies to restrictions on city-owned property and public transport.
What actually counts as fossil fuel advertising? Why are cities and regions restricting it, and what do these changes mean for climate action and the communications industry?
We will explore these questions at the fourth edition of Haiku Dialogues: World Without Fossil Ads on 28 September at Urania in Zagreb, with two guests working directly on these issues: Dutch legal expert Rémi ter Haar and Danish philosopher and climate campaigner Esther Michelsen Kjeldahl.
Fossil fuel advertising is part of a broader debate about the role of business, marketing and communications in the climate transition. In its 2022 report, the IPCC describes business models and strategies as both barriers to and accelerators of decarbonisation, while also addressing the role of marketing and advertising in relation to consumer behaviour. In 2024, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on countries to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies, on news media and tech companies to stop accepting fossil fuel advertising, and on advertising and PR agencies to stop taking new fossil fuel clients and set out plans to drop existing ones.
“These changes show that the social acceptance of fossil fuels is shifting and demonstrate that local leadership is essential to phasing out fossil fuels, whether backed by a democratic majority or by local sustainable businesses,” said Rémi ter Haar, Legal Campaigner at Fossil Free Advertising and EU Climate Pact Ambassador.
What does the research tell us? What is already changing in the advertising landscape? And what do new approaches to regulating fossil fuel advertising mean for climate action, cities, brands, agencies, media and the communications industry? We will explore these questions together at the next edition of Haiku Dialogues.
Register for Haiku Dialogues: World Without Fossil Ads
The European Climate Pact is a partner of the event.
Photography: Sanjin Kaštelan. Design concept: Joost de Haas, adapted for Haiku Dialogues with permission.
