Thinktank calls for SUV ad ban to help meet climate goals
The New Weather Institute think tank and climate charity Possible called on Monday for the ban of advertising of sport utility vehicles which are more polluting than other cars.
SUVs emit more greenhouse gases than other car models and their sales should be reduced if the UK aims to meet its climate goals, their latest report said.
According to the International Energy Agency, the rise in popularity of SUVs in the UK is the second-largest contributor to the increase in global emissions since 2010 and is jeopardizing the government’s efforts to hit climate targets.
The UK has committed to a target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
SUVs make up more than 40% of new cars sold in the UK – while fully electric vehicles account for less than 2%.
Andrew Simms, co-director of the New Weather Institute, said: “We ended tobacco advertising when we understood the threat from smoking to public health.
“Now that we know the human health and climate damage done by car pollution, it’s time to stop adverts making the problem worse. In a pandemic-prone world, people need clean air and more space on town and city streets.” He said adverts promoting the biggest and worst emitting SUVs were in effect “upselling pollution”.
“The UK government’s plan for reaching net zero emissions relies on British drivers quickly switching away from buying traditional petrol and diesel cars to cleaner electric vehicles instead.
“That is now starting to happen, but there’s a problem: we’ve been switching to buying SUVs even faster, and as a result the average carbon emissions of a new car sold in the UK have been going up instead of down for the past four years.”
Robbie Gillett, a campaigner at Possible, said: “Whilst millions of us are trying to reduce our carbon footprints to tackle the climate crisis, we have a multibillion-pound car and advertising industry aggressively marketing highly polluting vehicles – many of which are literally too big for UK streets.”