The world’s fossil fuel industries should be banned from advertising to help save the world from climate change.
That is according UN Secretary General António Guterres who called coal, oil and gas corporations the “godfathers of climate chaos”.
How tobacco advertising was banned because of the threat to health, the same should now apply to fossil fuels, he said in a speech on Wednesday.
His comments came as new studies showed the rate of warming is increasing and that global heat records continue to be broken.
Last year was the hottest on record and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Wednesday that the record could fall again as soon as this year.
To try to tackle this, the UN Secretary General has called for more action on climate change, and a “clampdown” on the fossil fuel industry.
He accused many in the oil, gas and coal industries who have “shamelessly greenwashed” with lobbying, legal action and massive advertising campaigns.
“I urge every country to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies,” he told an audience in New York.
“And I urge news media and tech companies to stop taking fossil fuel advertising.”