Canadian City Will Put Climate Change Warning Stickers on Gas Pumps

A sample climate change warning sticker from Canadian nonprofit Our Horizon

If North Vancouver gas vendors want a business license, they’ll soon have to embrace stickers—warning stickers. This week, the Canadian city became the first in the world to mandate the use of climate change warning stickers on its gas pumps.

The new bylaw is a “a very significant, timely, low-cost approach to deliver key messages … as reminders of positive, can-do actions people can take to reduce [greenhouse gas] emissions,” the North Vancouver City Council wrote in its accepted agenda proposal. CBC reports that the stickers will cost the city between 3,000 and 5,000 Candian dollars ($2,250-$3,750) to produce.

Though the city doesn’t yet know what its 3-square-inch gas nozzle toppers will look like, message proposals range from fuel-efficient driving tips (“Save fuel through properly inflating your tires”) to facts about climate change (“Burning fossil fuel contributes to climate change”) to notes on the benefits of travel alternatives (“Walking has zero GHG emissions and improves your health”).

“The message is that burning fossil fuels causes climate change and … to add a positive spin, here are some tips when using your automobile on how to make it more fuel efficient," North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussatt told the CBC.

A sample sticker from Our Horizon

The non-profit climate change organization Our Horizon has promoted the use of climate change warning labels on gas pumps since 2012, but the group says that North Vancouver is the first city to make the stickers mandatory. A number of Canadian cities have voted “in support” of the climate change labels, and they’re being mulled over in a few American cities, too.

(Via CBC)