Greenpeace and more than twenty other environmental organizations are calling for a European ban on advertising for oil and gas companies.

Such companies should also no longer be allowed to enter into sponsorship contracts, they believe. The environmental groups compare the restrictions already imposed on harmful tobacco advertising in Europe in the past.

The organizations announce protest actions. They also state that they want to collect a million signatures from EU citizens. These are necessary for a so-called European citizens’ initiative.

In this way, they want to force the European Commission to look into a law that prohibits advertising for fossil fuels. The Commission, the EU’s executive board, is obliged to consider petitions submitted as a European citizens’ initiative seriously.

“The EU has already introduced a directive banning cross-border tobacco advertising and sponsorship,” Greenpeace said in a statement released Monday ahead of the United Nations’ COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November. “Now is the time for a similar law against fossil fuel industries to promote the health of the planet and our future.”