The Capital has adopted the UK’s toughest ban on fossil fuel ads

When will it bite and how might it affect life in the Capital?

Councillor Ben Parker: Pic Edinburgh Greens

Advertising surrounds us wherever we go, online or offline. It is simply everywhere, with very few exceptions, yet we rarely talk about what is and isn’t acceptable.

In May last year, Edinburgh city council voted to ban adverts that promote “high-carbon products”, including airlines, cruise holidays, SUVs and petrol cars, from appearing on council-owned assets.

It’s a move being adopted by towns and city governments across the UK and Europe as deadlines to achieve net zero emissions edge closer. Edinburgh’s ambitious 2030 target is now just five years away.

The ban might seem radical, especially if you haven’t heard much about the idea before. It may seem less so when you consider cigarette advertising - promoting another activity that was ultimately harmful to our health - was ubiquitous well within the lifetime of many of us.

The logic of such bans is fairly simple. By reducing exposure to adverts for certain products and services, people consume less and suffer fewer of the associated harms, whether that’s health problems from air pollution or planet-boiling emissions that contribute to climate change.

One study has estimated that in 2022 the advertising industry added 32% to the emissions of every single person in the UK, by encouraging extra consumption.

Edinburgh council has recognised that actively promoting high-carbon behaviours like flying and driving gas-guzzling cars is “incompatible with net zero objectives” and that reaching net zero “requires a shift in society’s perception of success, and the advertising industry has a key role to play.”