With the green movement sweeping much of the developed world, governments all over are looking for ways to save energy, and one being considered in Europe would impose tougher restrictions on ads for cars.

The European Parliament yesterday approved legislation that would require car manufacturers to devote 20 percent of broadcast, print and internet advertising to warnings about the fuel consumption and carbon footprint of the car.

While the proposals still need to go through further approval stages before they become law, the advertising and auto industries are clearly worried.

"It is yet another draconian restriction on advertising, which would hamper creative advertising and unnecessarily restrict commercial freedom," says a spokesperson for the Advertising Association in Britain, where advertisers are still coping with the recent introduction of tough broadcast regulations for junk food advertising.

"It will deter car advertisers from using those sorts of media where they have restrictions and can’t use the full space. Ultimately advertisers fund the media," says the spokesperson.

The proposals that were approved yesterday by the European Parliament were part of a package to help reduce carbon emissions in Europe after concerns that targets have not been met.

The European Commission will now use the proposals passed by Parliament as a guideline in creating its own draft directive, which will then be voted on. The directive should be drafted by the end of the year. Just when the European Commission will vote is not clear at this stage.

Yesterday’s vote to approve the proposals in Parliament is seen as highly important. A key government official has said that the European Commission would take its lead from the outcome of that vote.

The restrictions in the proposal suggest that one-fifth of any print car advertisement would be blocked out and contain the amount of CO2 emissions of a car and fuel mileage the car achieves. This is similar to the requirements for cigarette advertising in Europe currently.

For radio such information would take up 20 percent of the air time in a radio ad. TV ads would also be required to devote 20 percent of the ad to such details.

"As you can imagine, it is not something that we would be particularly happy about," says a spokesperson for the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Limited. "At the end of the day, where will it stop? With the 20 percent warning, will they put it on anything that generates man-made CO2? Things like adverts for holiday or mobile phones? Cars are seen as the easy target."

The European Publishers’ Council, which is a group of heads of European media companies, has said it will call on the European Commission to look at the potential economic damage of such regulations, which could result in marketing budgets moving away from media advertising.

The Advertising Association in Britain says that this is not the only such move afoot. In Britain, there are now calls for further restrictions on alcohol advertising and even toy advertising.