Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentation today. The opening statement articulated the importance of media and RTE's role when it comes to climate and environmental education. My involvement in the environmental sector was largely driven by watching Éamon de Buitléar on RTE many years ago. Over the past year or two, there has been a great uptick in the amount of coverage on RTE when it comes to environmental programming. That is to be welcomed. At the same time, there is a large amount of advertising for, say, fossil fuels and environmentally-damaging products on RTE. One of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, reports stated that behaviour change could complement system change in achieving rapid emissions cuts. It lists regulation of advertising as an example of a policy measure that could have a major influence on mitigative capacity. Is this something that RTE has looked at? Being a public broadcaster, RTE is a lead role in this discussion. There are things that RTE could do voluntarily and not to be forced to do. Has RTE considered banning fossil fuel ads?