Van Geest: City of Ottawa must stop accepting fossil fuel advertising

Article content

It is time for the City of Ottawa to ban the promotion of fossil fuels in city facilities. Whether it’s advertising on city facilities or sponsorship of city assets and activities, doing business with fossil fuel developers directly contradicts the city’s values ​​and commitments.

Ads promoting fossil fuels currently appear at Brewer and McNabb stadiums and at various OC Transpo facilities, including bus stops and buses. These ads mislead about fossil fuels, with messages like “Canadian oil and natural gas are part of the solution” to climate change.

Article content

Article content

However, we know that fossil fuels are the problem, not the solution. In fact, fossil fuels are the main human cause of climate change, according to the American Environmental protection agency. How could they be “part of the solution”?

Another ad from the same group says: “Canadian exports of LNG (liquefied natural gas) will reduce global emissions.” We know they won’t. What the industry calls “natural gas” is predominantly methane, which traps heat in the atmosphere. 25 times more than carbon dioxide.

Yet another ad cynically claims that “global demand for oil and natural gas is growing,” implying that we should profit from this demand. One ad says it clearly: “As long as the world needs oil and natural gas, shouldn’t it be Canadian?”

These ads urge our complicity, even our cooperation, with our planet’s deadly trajectory toward climate disaster. And yet, they are currently displayed in facilities around the city, visible to the many children who enjoy these facilities and are forming their opinions.

These announcements also seem to contradict the city’s own. sponsorship and advertising policy. This policy currently says:

Article content

“All sponsorships and advertising will be consistent with the vision, mission and values ​​of the City of Ottawa and will not compromise or contradict any city bylaws or policies, or reflect negatively on the public image of the city.

“The City will not solicit or accept sponsorship or advertising from companies whose reputation may be detrimental to the public image of the City and/or whose principal business is derived from… supporting or participating in the production, distribution and sale of. .. life-threatening products.”

Accepting advertising money from fossil fuel developers certainly reflects negatively on the city’s public image; and fossil fuel products put city assets at risk and threaten lives. As the Observation of the Supreme Court of Canada, “climate change is an existential challenge. “It is a threat of the highest order to the country and, indeed, to the world.”

In Ottawa, too, we have felt the life-threatening effects of climate change.

Last year, we (and particularly our children and those with breathing difficulties) struggled under the smoke of wildfires exacerbated by climate change. We also experienced three tornadoes last year, one of which damaged 125 homes. The 2022 derecho cost the city $50 million and one family its father and husband.

Article content

The less than $13,000 in revenue that fossil fuel ads generate for the city pales in comparison to this destruction.

Continuing to allow the promotion of fossil fuels contradicts the city’s own approach to climate, which includes declaring a climate emergency in 2019; is Energy evolution strategy, which calls for the complete elimination of fossil fuels by 2050; and its signing of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2022.

In light of these commitments, the promotion of fossil fuels is clearly inconsistent “with the vision, mission and values ​​of the City of Ottawa” and in fact “compromises or contradicts (a) city charter or policy.”

That’s why we come together numerous environmental organizations and concerned residents recently to call on Ottawa to ban the promotion of fossil fuels in city facilities.

Fossil fuel promotion has no place in our city and we urge the city council to end it while the city reviews its sponsorship and advertising policy. This is an opportunity for Ottawa to show leadership and make its values ​​and commitments a reality.

William van Geest He is coordinator of the Ottawa Ecology program. @EcologyOttawa

Article content