Noord-Holland aims to become the first of the 12 Dutch provinces to ban advertising for meat, fish, air travel and fossil fuels from its bus shelters, the Volkskrant reported on Thursday.

The ban will cover some 500 bus shelters owned by the provincial council, most of which are located outside built-up areas.

‘As a province, we are working hard to solve the climate crisis but our bus shelters are giving a platform to companies that are working against this,’ GroenLinks provincial councillor Anouk Gielen told the paper. ‘We want, as a sustainable province, to stop adverts for long haul flights or Shell petrol.’

The province has the right to ban certain types of advertising via the agreement it has with the company responsible for placing the posters and, a spokesman said, the ban will come into effect immediately.

‘We will talk about what to do about campaigns which are underway and which do not meet the new rules,’ the spokesman said.

The provincial ban follows the example of eight Dutch cities which have already said they will ban advertising for fossil fuels from their bus shelters. Haarlem and Nijmegen also plan to stop advertising for factory farmed meat.

The impact of these bans so far has been limited, the Volkskrant said, because of long-running contracts between the cities and the advertising companies.