Amsterdam council is to ban advertising for cheap flights and diesel cars from the city’s metro system as part of a scheme to discourage the use of fossil fuels.

Adverts for specific products which require fossil fuels will not longer be permitted in the city’s 40 metro stations, which have some 30 electronic advertising hoardings between them.

‘The need to counteract climate change should be seen in the street, and that means in advertising,’ the council’s environment chief Marieke van Doorninck told NOS radio news.

The ban only applies to specific products for legal reasons, she said. So, KLM can still advertise in the metro, just not with flights for €20.

Mark Veenman from advertising company CS Digital Media told NOS he expected some 10% of the adverts currently seen in the metro will be affected.