Fossil fuel companies and broadcasters are working to dilute proposed world-first national restrictions on fossil fuel ads due to come into effect in France at the start of next year.

Fifteen companies and trade associations including oil and gas giant TotalEnergies have proposed a series of amendments to the draft decree, according to public comments and lobbying records obtained by DeSmog.

Several of these requests appeared to have been adopted in a new version of the decree presented to a group of industry representatives, MPs and environmental groups on Thursday, according to a presentation from the meeting also obtained by DeSmog.

“The fossil fuel industry wants to hollow out the ban: fewer communications covered, fewer products and services in scope,” said Clémentine Baldon, a lawyer specialising in environmental law. 

France’s plans to restrict fossil fuel advertising grew out of a raft of recommendations adopted by a citizen assembly comprised of 150 people selected by lottery to explore ways to combat the climate crisis in 2020. While some cities — including Amsterdam and Edinburgh — have taken steps to limit fossil fuel advertising, France is the first country to adopt a national ban.

Following intensive lobbying by the automotive and advertising industry in 2021, however, the government and MPs have drafted measures that fall far short of the citizen assembly’s vision.  

Supporters of the ban wanted to end all advertising by the fossil fuel industry and for heavily polluting products such as SUVs and flights. Critics say that in their current form, the draft proposals would only ban a small subset of ads directly promoting the sale of petrol and diesel, as well as fossil fuels used for household cooking and heating, such as liquefied petroleum gas and heating oil.

“Climate disasters are already killing thousands of people in France, and wiping out 30 percent of our food production,” said Alma Dufour, MP for left-wing party La France Insoumise, referring to record-breaking wildfires and heatwaves this summer. “It’s absurd to confine the ban to petrol, diesel and heating fossil gas ads since these barely exist. The real targets should be the biggest polluters: combustion-engine cars and flights.”

Narrowing the Scope

Fossil fuel companies and trade associations representating television, radio and streaming services have been lobbying the government over the past three months to insert a raft of additional exemptions that would further weaken the proposals, according to a DeSmog review of public submissions and lobbying records which have not previously been made public.

These include demands from nine different companies and lobby groups to exempt any “corporate communications”, the records show, a broad industry term which has no clear legal definition.

In one of eight amendments proposed by TotalEnergies, the company argued that it needs this exemption in order to communicate “the company’s strategy, its governance, its environmental and CSR [corporate social responsibility] commitments, [and] its energy transition policy”. 

Climate advocates, however, say such an amendment would allow the fossil fuel industry — the source of the bulk of the carbon emissions driving the climate crisis — to keep running the kinds of brand-building campaigns it has traditionally used to boost its reputation and deflect scrutiny.

Last October, a Paris civil court ruled that parts of a 2021 rebrand by TotalEnergies misled consumers with claims that it could be a carbon-neutral company by mid-century, even though its main business remains fossil fuels.

Fuel distributors including petrol station and supermarket chain Leclerc want to exempt on-pump promotions, the records show. Leclerc argued such ads help lower prices “in a context of crisis where pump prices weigh heavily on weekly budgets.”

Thirteen companies and lobby groups are also trying to remove a clause that appears to extend the restrictions to include ads that have the “indirect effect” of increasing fossil fuel consumption. Climate advocates hope this kind of wording could leave the door open to eventually include ads for high-carbon products and services like cars.

TotalEnergies, energy company Engie and France Gaz — a lobby group representing the French gas industry — have warned the government that the language “risks broadening the scope of the ban”, according to the records.

A bloc of media groups and advertising lobbies including Alliance Des Médias TV & Vidéo (ADMTV) and Alliance de la Radio also took aim at this part of the text. Some argued that a wider ban on fossil fuel-related advertising would threaten the advertising revenue that supports broadcasters.

Supporting a more ambitious ban, state-owned electricity company EDF — which is playing a leading role in France’s electrification drive — and environmental groups have called for the decree to be broadened to explicitly include products and services driving fossil fuel consumption, not just fossil fuels themselves, according to the lobbying records.

‘Manufactured Doubt’

The government presented its latest proposals on Thursday in a consultation with the Conseil Supérieur de l’Energie (CSE) — a government-appointed group of industry representatives, MPs, civil society, and consumer protection groups. 

The latest language appeared to include industry’s demand to exempt “corporate communications”.

“Simply promoting the image, visibility, or reputation of a [fossil fuel] company” would not be considered as “advertising related to the marketing or promotion of fossil fuels”, according to the presentation given in the meeting seen by DeSmog.

The latest proposals also removed a reference to the “indirect” promotion of fossil fuels — in line with the fossil fuel industry’s calls to limit the scope the of the ban.  

“The draft decree aims to make the ban as effective as possible — without going beyond what the law allows,” the environment ministry told DeSmog.

Sources close to the discussions say that it remains unclear exactly what the latest updates will mean for the implementation of the proposed advertising restrictions.

The government is now due to once again redraft the decree, before notifying the European Commission and seeking input from the Conseil d’État, France’s highest administrative court. Both opponents of the ban and supporters of stricter restrictions could challenge the decree in court after it is published.

“Today’s meeting revealed how imprecise the proposed restrictions still are, even after five years of waiting, said Bastien Cuq, energy lead at the Climate Action Network, who attended the consultation. “But more than that, it exposed how many industry players are eager to play up the confusion, stirring up manufactured doubt just to stall a law from ever taking effect.”  

A spokesperson for TotalEnergies said it is “contributing to the discussions (…) to avoid any future legal ambiguity — specifically regarding the scope of the ban and the exemptions.”

ADMTV denied it was seeking to water down the restrictions and instead wanted “consistency”. A spokesperson said the group’s engagement was intended to ensure the ban covered “all media platforms, not just those which are already the most heavily regulated in France, such as television and streaming.” 

France Gaz, Engie, l’Alliance de la Radio, and EDF did not respond to requests for comment.

In January, DeSmog revealed that Amsterdam had defied a last-minute lobbying effort by JCDecaux — the world’s largest outdoor advertising operator — to become the first capital city to ban ads for fossil fuel and meat products.

Transport, travel and tourism represented 12 percent of total ad spend in France in 2023, according to a report by l’Inspection générale des finances (IGF), part of the French Ministry of the Economy.

All forms of energy advertising, including both fossil and renewable energies, represented 4 percent of ad spend in France in 2023, according to the same report.