We know that many countries have set aggressive climate goals, and actually achieving those isn’t proving to be so easy. So along those lines, local politicians in Amsterdam have just introduced new regulations that are sure to be controversial. I sort of see where they’re coming from, but this all strikes me as being a step too far.
Amsterdam rolls out extreme airline advertising ban
As of May 2026, the Dutch capital of Amsterdam has introduced new policies, intended to better align local advertising regulations with the climate goals in the city and country, as flagged by Live and Let’s Fly.
With this, Amsterdam has banned all public advertising for meat and fossil fuel products, so you’ll no longer see any billboards in the city for these kinds of products and services. Amsterdam is hoping to be carbon neutral by 2050, and also to reduce meat consumption by 50% over that time period.
So the idea is that public advertising shouldn’t be allowed to promote these “sins” that are part of a high carbon lifestyle. It’s the same as how many places have banned ads for things like cigarettes, or how cigarette cartons have all kinds of warnings about how smoking kills.
I get the logic, but this seems extreme to me
The Netherlands has aggressive climate goals, and that’s largely commendable. However, I think politicians in the country sure are going to the extreme when it comes to the extent to which they’re vilifying air travel.
In recent years, we’ve of course seen the government try to cap flights at Amsterdam Schiphol, which has been a major headache for flag carrier KLM, given that it’s the carrier’s only hub. The government has largely had to backtrack on those plans, after European Union authorities intervened.
I don’t claim to have a solution here, and I also respect that leadership in the Netherlands isn’t just setting climate goals, and then going “shucks” when they miss their target, because they didn’t actually do anything to achieve them.
At the same time, what’s really the goal here? Does the government in the Netherlands just want that people almost never travel by air, by making it uncool, and by making it more expensive (through constant cuts to flight caps)?
And big picture, what will that really mean for the country? Decreased air connectivity is also tied to decreased economic activity. If you ask me, it would be more logical to incentivize airlines to fly fuel efficient aircraft to the Netherlands, and maybe even include some sort of a carbon offset tax on tickets, so that projects can be undertaken to counteract emissions.
Travel offers a lot of value to society, and I also don’t think that making it something that exclusively rich people can afford is the solution either.
If you zoom out a bit, there’s no denying that anti-smoking campaigns have worked, and have gotten fewer people to smoke. But is this really how we want to frame air travel?
Bottom line
The city of Amsterdam has introduced new regulations around advertising in the city, whereby all public advertising for meat and fossil fuel products is no longer allowed. This includes restrictions on airline advertising.
I get that the Netherlands has climate goals, and wants to actually take action to achieve them. But I can’t help but think there will be a massive societal cost to less air connectivity, less desire to travel to distant places, etc.
What do you make of Amsterdam’s new advertising regulations?
