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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/06/south-australia-bus-advertising-natural-gas-clean-green>
"South Australia’s transport department misled the public by running ads on
buses claiming “natural gas” was “clean and green”, the advertising regulator
has found.
The SA Department for Transport and Infrastructure has agreed to remove the
advertising that has been on some Adelaide Metro buses since the early 2000s
after Ad Standards upheld a complaint from the not-for-profit organisation
Comms Declare.
The ads have appeared on the side of buses that run on “compressed natural
gas”, or CNG. In its complaint, Comms Declare said describing gas as clean and
green was false and misleading as it suggested the fuel had a neutral or
positive impact on the environment and was less harmful than alternatives.
It said in reality gas was mostly composed of methane, a short-lived but potent
fossil fuel.
The Ad Standards panel agreed the ads breached three sections of its
environmental claims code. It said the claim was “misleading and
unsubstantiated, was vague, and did not communicate a genuine environmental
benefit”.
The panel said CNG buses were originally introduced to provide more
environmentally responsible transport than diesel buses, but transport
solutions had evolved dramatically over the past 20 years and now included
cleaner electric, hydrogen and hybrid alternatives.
Comms Declare said multiple studies from across the globe had found buses that
ran on CNG resulted in a roughly similar amount of greenhouse gas emissions
being released into the atmosphere as buses that ran on diesel. It highlighted
Adelaide Metro was now replacing its bus fleet with electric vehicles that it
described as “better for the environment”.
Comms Declare’s founder, Belinda Noble, said the decision was “another warning
to any advertisers that want to make claims about gas products being good for
the environment”. She said it followed similar rulings against Hancock
Prospecting and Australian Gas Networks ads.
“Methane gas creates toxic pollution at all stages of its production and use
and is a major cause of global heating,” Noble said."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
