Travel trade organisation ANVR is going to court to try to overturn a ban by the city council in The Hague on fossil fuel advertising.

The ban is due to come into force on January 1 and will affect adverts for holidays, such as cruises and fly-drive packages, because they contribute to climate change.

Ads for oil and gas-based energy contracts and cars – including hybrid electric cars, which are partly powered by fossil fuels – will also be prohibited on billboards in the city.

But ANVR says the ban breaches travel companies’ right to freedom of speech and hopes to overturn it by a court injunction.

“Companies and brands also have a right to freedom of speech,” director Frank Radstake told Nieuwsuur. The organisation argues that the ban is a symbolic gesture that will do nothing in practice to reduce fossil fuel use.

The Hague is the first council in the Netherlands to use by-laws to remove adverts for fossil fuels, although other major cities including Amsterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven are considering following suit.

In the sea

Alderman for public space Robert Barker, who was responsible for the by-law, argued every level of government needed to play its part in combating climate change.

“National government isn’t doing much, so we have to look to local measures. We want to be a city on the sea, not in the sea,” he said.

Barker said studies had shown the move was legally and compared it to bans on billboard advertising for cigarettes and gambling. United Nations secretary-general Antonio Gutierres also called in June for adverts for fossil fuels to be banned.

But Radstake argued that the comparison with smoking was misplaced. “Travelling is not just a bad thing,” he said. “We would have been happy to have consulted with The Hague about how we can work together towards a more sustainable world.”