Calling fossil fuel companies the “Godfathers of climate chaos,” United Nations’ Secretary General António Guterres on Wednesday called for a blanket ban on advertising and compared oil companies to Big Tobacco.In a speech in New York to mark World Environment Day, Guterres called on news media to stop “enabling planetary destruction” by running the ads while the world faces “climate crunch time” to tackle global warming.“Many governments restrict or prohibit advertising for products that harm human health, like tobacco,” he said. “I urge every country to ban advertising from fossil-fuel companies. And I urge news media and tech companies to stop taking fossil-fuel advertising.”.Guterres delivered his remarks at the American Museum of Natural History standing underneath a massive model of a blue whale suspended from the ceiling, which seemed to mistake for T-Rex.“We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell,” he intoned. “Like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, we’re having an outsized impact. In the case of climate, we are not the dinosaurs — we are the meteor. We are not only in danger. We are the danger.” It comes as the Canadian government is considering changes to Bill C-59, The Competition Act, which includes restrictions on so-called ‘greenwashing’ claims by oil and gas companies in advertising.Rather than an outright ban, however, the new law would hold the companies to an unspecified ‘global’ standard — presumably determined by the likes of the UN..The bill has received third reading and is presently before the Senate awaiting royal assent.On Tuesday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith pushed back on the restrictions by saying she has no intention of following them and all but guaranteed a subsequent constitutional challenge.“Well, maybe I'll be the first person prosecuted… because I can tell you that our oil and gas industry is has got a better environmental record than any anywhere in the world and I'm going to continue to celebrate that,” she said.“There's a there's another constitutional challenge in the works here,” she added.“Free speech is guaranteed chartered right and energy companies as well as provincial politicians have the right to be able to talk about their their products and to be able to sell it to the world, so I think they've gone way way over their skis on this one. Ultimately, if it lands in court, that's where we're going to have to settle this out.”
