Car adverts could soon carry pollution warnings, it has been revealed.
The EU is planning new rules that would force carmakers to display the environmental damage their products cause clearly within the ad.
The new hazard warnings could be implemented within months and would be similar to those seen on cigarette packets.
Pollution information is often printed in tiny smallprint at the bottom of the ads but the new proposals may carry a ‘traffic light system’ where high-emission cars would be easy to identify.
A red dot or a star would signify high-polluters, through to a green one for low emissions cars.
An alternative would be to have an alphabetical system of A to G grades for pollution levels.
The new rules would mean advertisers would have to have clear information on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions plastered across images of cars.
The proposals are said to have upset publishers and carmakers alike.
‘The massed ranks of the media are up in arms,’ said Angela Mills Wade, executive director of the European Publishers Council.
The European Commission inaugurated a two-month period of consultations on the issue this week before unveiling its proposals.
‘The labelling directive in force is not working as well as it could and needs to be amended,’ it concluded.