RTÉ should ‘show leadership’ by phasing out fossil fuel advertising

It based its 17 recommendations on meetings dating back to 2022 with RTÉ, Ireland’s then-broadcasting authority, the media regulator, ESRI, climate change campaigners and other experts.

At a meeting last month, RTÉ told the committee that around 11% of its advertising revenue comes from ads for fossil fuel products, more than half of which comes from motor vehicle ads. It said the share of its advertising revenue from car ads has declined in recent years.

“It’s a significant amount of revenue for us and for RTÉ,” RTÉ commercial director Gavin Deans said.

In any conversation about that, the question is what would be the replacement for that income.”

The committee heard that RTÉ must be aware of “greenwashing” and every advertisement goes through a “rigorous validation process” and “any claim made must be substantiated” before it is broadcast.

In its report, the commission said its members expressed concern that banning advertising for fossil fuel products could “undermine public support for climate action”, especially as alternative modes of transport are still underdeveloped and electric vehicles affordable are not readily available.

“It was noted, however, that a ban would be aimed at limiting promotion and demand creation, not banning purchases,” it said.

It recommended that Coimisiún na Meán examine the feasibility of banning or strictly regulating fossil fuel advertising and look at examples from France and The Hague.

The committee said such ads should be permanently banned during programming related to climate and environmental action and should generally be “required to carry warnings highlighting the danger to human health”.

“The committee recommends that RTÉ show leadership by phasing out advertising for fossil fuels and fossil fuel products entirely and by exploring and developing a funding model to support this.”

Climatic coverage

Separately, the committee recommended scholarships, grants and other grants to fund climate coverage and climate news. This would also involve the establishment of a news agency with short coverage of local and global environmental issues.

The committee said it noted “the tendency towards a general sense of apathy among the public” towards climate issues and said this posed a challenge for broadcasters. However, he said climate events such as severe flooding can “re-sharpen the focus” on the problem.