South Australian bus ads misled public by claiming gas is ‘clean and green’, regulator finds | South Australia

South Australia’s Department of Transport misled the public by running adverts on buses claiming “natural gas” was “clean and green”, the advertising regulator has found.

South Africa’s Department of Transport and Infrastructure has agreed to remove advertising that has appeared on some Adelaide Metro buses since the early 2000s after Ad Standards upheld a complaint from non-profit organization Comms Declare.

The ads appeared on the side of buses running on “compressed natural gas,” or CNG. In its complaint, Comms Declare said describing the gas as clean and green was false and misleading because it suggested the fuel had a neutral or positive impact on the environment and was less harmful than alternatives.

In reality, gas is primarily composed of methane, a short-lived but powerful fossil fuel.

The Advertising Standards Committee agreed the adverts breached three sections of its environmental complaints code.

CNG buses were originally introduced to provide more environmentally friendly transportation than diesel buses, but transportation solutions have evolved significantly over the past 20 years and now include cleaner alternatives to electricity, hydrogen and hybrids.

Comms Declare said several studies around the world had found that CNG-powered buses caused roughly the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions to be released into the atmosphere as diesel-powered buses. He highlighted that Adelaide Metro was now replacing its bus fleet with electric vehicles which he described as “better for the environment”.

Comms Declare founder Belinda Noble said the move was “another wake-up call to all advertisers who want to make the case that gas products are good for the environment”. She said this followed similar rulings against ads from Hancock Prospecting and Australian Gas Networks.

“Methane creates toxic pollution at all stages of its production and use and is a major cause of global warming,” Noble said.

Ad Standards said the Department of Transport and Infrastructure had “reviewed the decision and will take appropriate action to address the issue in the near future”.

A ministry spokesperson said it had received a direction from the Advertising Standards Committee to remove messages from a “small number” of Adelaide Metro buses.

The spokesperson argued that CNG was a “cleaner alternative to diesel” when purchased, offering an approximately 13% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and a “significant reduction in harmful emissions” of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter.