At their conference in Brighton, Green delegates today backed a motion put forward by the city’s constituency MP, Caroline Lucas, calling for an immediate ban on ‘High Carbon Advertising’. They voted to ban adverts that promote goods, products and services that are carbon intensive, with Lucas declaring them “incompatible with a sustainable society or liveable future.”
Welcoming the motion, Sian Berry, who is campaigning to become the next Green MP for Brighton Pavilion when Caroline Lucas stands down at the next election, said:
“We need to end the sprawl of adverts seeking to persuade us to buy products and services which wreck our climate, damage our environment and worsen our health. We need instead to make space for adverts for products and services which will support our local economies and help create a fairer and greener world – adverts for things such as active travel, healthier foods and sustainable fashion.
“Controls on advertising are common. Transport for London restricts advertising for a range of products including junk food, and is now close to banning gambling promotion, while France and Amsterdam are also working on high carbon adverts.”
Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, said:
"Carbon intensive companies are polluting the planet, and greenwashing their climate-wrecking activity through glitzy advertising campaigns which portray them as paragons of sustainability.
“I'm delighted the Green Party has backed this motion to immediately ban high-carbon advertising and help end the scourge of greenwashing on our society. It’s time for adverts to reflect the best of society, rather than the worst.”