By the end of the year, the French government will publish a decree banning all advertising for imported fossil fuels, it confirmed on Tuesday, July 7.
The measure is one of the 22 initiatives in the plan intended to boost demand for electricity and reduce France's dependence on hydrocarbons. However, it is not exactly new.
The Climate and Resilience law, adopted in 2021, already bans advertising campaigns that market or promote fossil fuels. However, the law's formal application was contingent on the publication of a decree. The government now seems determined to finally close a legal gap that has existed for five years.
It is a hollow victory for environmental advocates. "We're not going to complain: Wanting to ban advertising for fossil fuels means acknowledging they are a problem," said Edina Ifticene, campaigner at Greenpeace France. "It is still hard to understand why this decree took so long to arrive. And above all, our main regret is that it is not a very restrictive text."
Greenpeace, along with other environmentalist organizations, had called for a kind of "Evin law for the climate," modeled after the French legislation restricting advertising for tobacco and alcohol.
In other words, a much broader ban, targeting all corporate communications from hydrocarbon companies as well as all products and services powered by fossil fuels, from gasoline SUVs to air travel.
More details France to ban advertising for fossil fuels
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