CanadaPolitics

Good, the “we must protect the environment by using fossil fuels” ads are crazy

Federal New Democrats say it's time for Canada to do to the fossil fuel industry what it did to tobacco companies by banning misleading ads that market the industry as offering a solution to climate change.

The NDP's natural resources critic Charlie Angus tabled a private members bill (C-372) in the House of Commons this week. The bill would ban what the party describes as misleading fossil fuel advertising, similar to the way cigarette ads were restricted in the 1990s.

At a news conference Tuesday, Angus said Canada's oil industry is shifting its "propaganda" strategy by promoting its products as clean and claiming they can be part of the climate solution.

"That's like Benson and Hedges telling you that they can help end lung cancer," Angus said. "This is because big oil has always relied on the big tobacco playbook of delay and disinformation."

The new bill would outlaw marketing that downplays the climate-altering emissions and health hazards associated with the industry, or promotes fossil fuels in ways that are false, misleading or deceptive.

Health Canada estimates that air pollution caused primarily by burning fossil fuels in North America contributes to 15,300 premature deaths per year in Canada. The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) cites research that states fossil fuel air pollution in Canada leads to 34,000 premature deaths annually.

CAPE claims Pathways's net-zero ads were misleading because the consortium has not fully accounted for how it would achieve net-zero emissions.

"This is false. Oil can never be net-zero because 80 per cent of the life cycle emissions are released when oil is burned," said Leah Temper, CAPE's director of health and economic policy.